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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 
AND OTHER PAPERS 



By benjamin FRANKLIN 



WITH AN INTKODUOTION 

By henry KETCHAM 






ILLUSTRATED 



THE PEEKINS BOOK COMPANY, 
296 Broadway, New Yoek. 






^^ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRtSS, 

Two Copies Receivec; 

APR 10 1903 

Copyright tntry 
cuss cv XXc. No *' 



.')" 



*• 



Copyright, 1902, 
By E. a. BRAINERD, 



c • t 

«« « t 



INTEODUCTION. 



The early portion of the life of Benjamin Pranklin 
has been so well written by himself that other biograph- 
ers have been wisely reluctant to undertake the subject. 
It is, however, entirely proper to discuss the subject from 
the standpoint of the outsider. There are many things 
that may fittingly be said by another person, which 
Franklin himself would hardly have said ; and this is es- 
pecially true in giving an estimate of his character, and 
of his services to his country and to the progress of civ- 
ilization. It is also desirable to have, in addition to his 
autobiography, valuable as that is, a simple sketch of 
his life within such brief compass that the reader shall 
be able to take in all the outlines in a single glance. 
This preliminary sketch is written with these two pur- 
poses in mind. 

Benjamin was born at Boston, January 17, 1706. 
His father, Josiah Franklin, had come to this coun- 
try in 1668. The family were of English stock and 
had lived on a small freehold in ISTorthamptonshire 

iii 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

for several centuries at least, from the time whereof the 
memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Josiah 
was twice married ; by his first wife he had seven chil- 
dren, and by his second, Abiah, daughter of Peter 
Folger of Nantucket, he had ten. Of this brood of 
seventeen children, numerous enough to make a day- 
school of no mean size, our hero was the fifteenth in the 
order of birth, and the youngest of the sons. 

The father of seventeen children demands the sym- 
pathy, not the blame, of all good citizens, if he is at a 
loss to select suitable vocations in life for all of them 
without a mistake. The plans of Josiah were fairly 
successful with sixteen of the number, but for Benjamin 
they were decidedly fallible. The father's first plan was 
to make of his boy an orthodox minister, and this was at 
a time when tests of orthodoxy included belief in the 
physical torture of endless burning in a material hell, 
and a general belief in infant damnation. A glance at 
any portrait of Franklin taken in manhood, showing a 
countenance beaming with benevolence, displays the in- 
congruity between such orthodoxy and such a person. 
This is not saying that the boy was not pious, but only 
that he could not partake of the type of ecclesiastical 
doctrine that ruled that age. When he was twenty 
years old he composed his renowned epitaph, not more 
singular for the genius of its conception than for its 
firm grasp upon the faith of immortality, the transfor- 
mation of the corruptible body into the glorious body of 
the resurrection, and the elimination of sins. This is 



INTRODUCTION. V 

the more remarkable since^ in that day, the belief in 
the physical resurrection was almost universal. 
Here is the epitaph : — 

THE BODY 
OF 

BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

^(like the oovek of ait old book, 

ITS cojsttents tokn out, 

AITD STEIPT OF ITS LETTERING ANJ> GILDING;) 

LIES HEEE; FOOD FOE WOEMS, 

YET THE WOEK ITSELF SHALL NOT BE LOST, 

Fob IT WILL, AS he believed, APPEAE ONCE MORE, 

IN A NEW 

AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION, 

CORRECTED AND AMENDED 

BY 

THE jiuTHOR. 

Benjamin was next, at the age of ten, put to work in 
his father's chandler shop, but the monotony of the 
work, which consisted largely in cutting Avicks and run- 
ning errands, so disgusted the child that his father 
scented danger of his running away to sea. In order 
to prevent this, the boy was, at thirteen years of age, 



/ 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

apprenticed to his brother James, a printer. This plan 
had the advantage of giving Benjamin free access to 
books; but it had the disadvantage of compelling a 
younger brother to obey an elder brother, a plan that 
seldom works well. It also gave opportunity for the 
boy to try his hand at writing for print, and in this he 
learned some necessary lessons. But the incompatibil- 
ity of temper between the two brothers at last came to 
open rupture, and at seventeen years of age Benjamin, 
who had now a thorough knowledge of his trade, quietly 
set out " between two days '' for distant parts. He 
first stopped at New York, but quickly pushed on to 
Philadelphia. When he first landed in that city, '' my 
whole stock in trade,'' he said, " consisted in a Dutch 
dollar, and about a shilling in copper." At the begin- 
ning he borrowed money to establish himself in busi- 
ness, but once started, all obligations were soon paid and 
he began to lay up money. 

Franklin's first employment in Philadelphia was that 
of journeyman printer, and as such he worked for about 
a year. With the promise of financial assistance from 
the governor. Sir William Keith, he then determined 
to go into business for himself. This necessitated a 
trip to England — a long journey in those days — to pur- 
chase supplies. The financial me^ns on which he 
counted never came to hand, and he was stranded in 
London. But good workmen are always in demand, 
and he readily obtained employment at his trade and 
worked for over a year to discharge his obligations and 



INTRODUCTION. TU 

obtain means to return home. This time was by no 
means wasted^ for he was a student of men and events 
as well as of books, and the time spent in London was 
practically equal to a university training. When he 
returned to Philadelphia in 172 6, he was still under 
twenty-one years of age, but he was a man of wide ob- 
servation, abundant intelligence, keen observation, and 
well equipped for the work of his life. 

In 1730 Franklin was sufficientlv well established in 
his business to warrant his marrying, and he won the 
hand of his erst-while sweet foe, Miss Deborah Reed. 
This wedding was romantic and charming from the 
exceeding sweetness of the revenge which it consum- 
mated. It was this same Miss Reed who, years before, 
when the lad first entered the city, lonely and friendless, 
spied him walking down street with one baker's roll 
under each arm and a third roll disappearing in his 
mouth. She laughed, for she was but human; he was 
irritated, for he was but human. Seven years later 
they were husband and wife. In the interval however, 
she had wedded a worthless fellow who ran away to the 
West Indies, where he speedily performed for his de- 
serted wife the service of dying and leaving her free 
to take another husband. This union was entirely 
happy, and continued until the death of the wife in 
1774. 

After Franklin's return from London to Philadelphia 
in 1726, his career was one of unbroken prosperity. 
By 1729, he had become editor and proprietor of the 



VIII INTRODUCTION. 

Pennsylvania Gazette. In 1730 he married. In 1732 
he began the publication of the almanac, afterwards 
widely known as Poor Richard's Almanac, This con- 
tainedj in addition to the calendar, aphorisms of econo- 
mic wisdom and valuable advice. The annual sales of 
this publication rose to 10,000, an enormous circulation 
for those days. In the almanac, as well as in the news- 
paper, Franklin sought to instil the principles of in- 
dustry, thrift, honesty, and kindred virtues. He was 
alert to favor every enterprise conducive to the public 
good. He was thus the means of founding, in 1731, 
the public library at Philadelphia. He presently be- 
came a man of weighty influence. In 1736 he was 
clerk of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in 1737 
postmaster of Philadelphia, and in 1753 deputy post- 
master-general for the British colonies. In 1745 he 
originated what is now the University of Pennsylvania, 
and in 1752 he founded the Pennsylvania Hospital. In 
his private life he was far from spotless, he sowed a re- 
grettable measure of wild oats ; but he was honest and 
benevolent, and in all public and civic matters, he was 
a power for good. 

During the early period of his life, Franklin was con- 
sidered by many an atheist, and he regarded himself a 
free-thinker. His position was not one of hostility to- 
wards the teachings of the gospels, but of rebellion and 
protest against the lurid theology and dyspeptic eccle- 
siasticism of the age. He later regretted sincerely his 
utterances against the Christian faith. His true posi- 



INTRODUCTION. 

tion on religious questions he set forth in allegory. A 
certain man is at the gate of heaven, demanding en- 
trance on the ground, that he was a Presbyterian. 
^* What is that?" asks St. Peter, and when he is told, 
he says, '^ We don't have any here." The various sects 
are all mentioned in turn, but the applicant is each time 
assured that there are none in heaven. Finally, he sees 
his wife through the gate, and claims that if she is 
there, so he should be, for they were of the same religion 
on earth. ^^ Oh," said St. Peter, '' why didn't you say 
that you were a Christian to begin with ? " 

He wrote : '^ I never doubted, for instance, the exist- 
ence of the Deity; that he made the world, and gov- 
erned it by his Providence; that the most acceptable 
service of God was the doing good to man ; that our souls 
are immortal ; that all crime will be punished, and vir- 
tue rewarded, either here or hereafter." x\gain: '' For 
my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I 
do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as 
paying debts. , .1 can only show my gratitude for 
those mercies from God, by a readiness to help his 
other children and my brethren." When he could no 
longer tolerate such preaching as he heard in the church, 
he remained at home on Sundays and exercised his de- 
votions in the use of prayers which he himself had com- 
posed. The reader will remember Franklin's famous 
motion, in the Federal Convention of 1787, that 
^' Prayers, imploring the Assistance of Heaven, and its 
Blessing on our Deliberations, be held in this Assembly 



X INTRODUCTION. 

every Morning before we proceed to Business." The 
motion was voted down, but it did this service: it 
showed what were the feelings of this man upon this 
subject. It must be clearly understood, however, that 
he was at no time precisely orthodox, and in the last 
year of his life he wrote to President Stiles of Yale 
College that he had " some doubts as to the divinity '^ of 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

In 1757 Franklin's abilities were called into the pub- 
lic service by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. 
Trouble had arisen by reason of absentee landlordism. 
The " proprietaries '^ of the province, the descendants 
of William Penn, lived in great wealth in England; 
while their quasi subjects, or tenants, the Quakers who 
tilled the soil, resented certain demands of these land- 
lords concerning taxation. On the one side was the 
spirit of luxury and greed, and on the other side was 
the spirit of commercial thrift and independence. On 
both sides was the spirit of covetousness. Finally 
Franklin was sent to England for the purpose of ad- 
justing the differences between the contending parties. 
He succeeded so well that on his return, in 1762, he 
received the thanks of General Assembly for the able 
and faithful fulfilment of his mission. He was also the 
recipient of high honors in the mother country, both 
from universities, and from societies, and from dis- 
tinguished individuals. The visit, which lasted about 
five years, male many friends not only for Franklin 
himself, but also for the country he represented. 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

Franklin was now fifty-six years of age, and, having 
lived a very busy life, he longed for repose and felt that 
he had earned it. This was his yearning and his plan 
when he returned home. But f6r the next two years, 
while residing in Philadelphia, his life was anything 
but reposeful. First, he undertook the supervision of 
the postal business, which involved the traveling of 
1,600 miles,- most of which must have been accomplished 
on horseback, and which consumed six laborious months 
of time. Then it fell to his lot to beard the lion in his 
den in the shape of resistance of the proprietary gov- 
ernor who apparently acknowledged no rights whatever 
of the governed. Then he resisted the massacring 
of the Indians — an act of humanity which won for him 
many enemies; for such massacre is always in favor 
with large numbers of the people. As a result of this 
he was, October 1, 1764, in an exciting election, de- 
feated for the General Assembly by the narrow margin 
of twenty-five votes. The end was not yet, however, for 
the Assembly almost immediately chose him again as its 
agent, to carry to the king a petition for a royal gov- 
ernment in place of the intolerable proprietary system. 
His residence at home had been the reverse, of a vaca- 
tion, and at its close he once more accepted the public 
duties of a difiicult mission. 

In this second trip to England Franklin found that 
it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. His 
purpose in going was to adjust matters between the pro- 
prietaries and the citizens; the questions actually dis- 



XII INTEODUCTION. 

cussed were so momentous, that ^this subject sank into 
comparative insignificance and was lost to view. The 
time he expected to consume in England was about nine 
months ; his actual stay was about ten years. History 
was rapidly making at that time, and it was fortunate 
for patriotic America that so able a man was her 
representative on English soil. He was on the ground, 
and his diplomacy proved to be fully equal to the un- 
expected demands caused by the growing excitement of 
public feeling. < 

The Grenville ministry was at this time in power. 
The policy of the royal administration was as if Amer- 
ica was a naughty boy that needed a sound thrashing. 
The law^s concerning commerce were very stringent 
These were founded in the main on three principles: 
^- first, that England should be the only shop in which 
a colonist could purchase; second, that colonists should 
not make for themselves those articles which England 
had to sell them; third, that the people of different 
colonies should not trade even with each other, to the 
indirect or possible detriment of the trade of either with 
England." These oppressive measures were countered 
in America with a boycott. This aggravated the situa- 
tion, for there was no relief to either party, while both 
parties were more firm or obstinate — according to the 
point of view — than before. The English naturally 
reasoned, ^' We must strike harder." The Beatitude, 
" Blessed are the meek," was substantially repealed. 

The blow administered by England to the rebellious 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

boy was the law known as ^^ The Stamp Act," passed in 
1765. This was a species of internal revenue, and re- 
quired that all bills, leases, and many other such docu- 
ments used in the colonies, should be written on stamped 
paper to be sold by officers of the English government. 
The tax was not excessive, it was certainly less than the 
British subjects residing in England paid cheerfully. 
But the Americans at once went to the heart of the mat- 
ter and denied the right of parliament to tax them at 
all. The Stamp Act was the last straw, it broke the 
back of the endurance of the colonists, it brought them 
to the fighting point. All through the colonies the cry 
was raised, " Xo taxation without representation," and 
the cry was never silenced. It lay, and still lies, at the 
foundation of American liberty. 

Franklin did his utmost to prevent the passage of the 
Stamp Act, but failed in this purpose. After it was 
passed, he counseled his countrymen to make the best 
of the situation, hoping that matters would soon be 
mended. Thereupon occurred one of those unaccounta- 
ble outbreaks of public feeling that swept the country 
like a prairie fire. The Beatitude upon the meek was 
for the time inoperative. The whole people became fire-- 
eaters, either for or against, and for one to counsel pa- 
tience was as obnoxious as it has ever been in periods 
of popular excitement, from the days of Jeremiah to 
the present. This idol of the American people was 
vigorously torn from its pedestal and the execrations 
were great in proportion to the previous admiration. 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

Franklin was everywhere denounced; he was in favor 
of the Stamp Act; he was its author; he was a traitor 
to his country ; he was on the point of accepting office in 
George the Third's cabinet. This intense excitement 
quickly passed, but it burned with great heat for the 
time. All this did not materially ruffle- the placid spirit 
of Franklin. He made the best of the situation. He 
exerted himself to effect the repeal of the act, and his 
efforts, following the American boycott, were fully suc- 
cessful. The act was repealed in 1766. 

An incident occurred in England which at the time 
seemed slight, but which accomplished results that were 
more important and wider reaching than could possibly 
have been imagined. It was that he was summoned by 
the committee of the whole of the House of Commons, 
to give testimony concerning the colonies. Another 
such a witness has rarely or never been found in the 
world's experience. It gave him a unique opportunity 
to argue the cause of the patriots. The examination 
'• ranged over a vast ground, — colonial history and poli- 
tical economy, theories and practice in colonial trade, 
colonial commerce and industry, popular opinions and 
sentiments, and the probabilities of action in supposed 
cases. His answers made a great stir; they were uni- 
versally admitted to have substantially advanced the 
day of repeal. They constituted the abundant armory 
to which the friends of the colonies resorted for weapons 
offensive and defensive, for facts and for ideas." 
In this trying examination, Franklin proved himself 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

absolute master of the situation, so that ^^ Burke likened 
the proceeding to an examination of a master by a parcel 
of schoolboys." 

In the meanwhile Franklin was making friends for 
America. For this work he had important qualifica- 
tions. To begin with, he was a successful diner-out; 
and in that day, as at present, the art of dining was an 
important pre-requisite to the successful diplomatist. 
He was everywhere welcome. His literary and scien- 
tific achievements commended him most favorably to 
the cultured, the nobility, the men of affairs, the scien- 
tists, and, in general, to society. He had gone to Lon- 
don as the representative of the province of Pennsyl- 
vania, but while there he was appointed agent also for 
'New Jersey, Georgia, and Massachusetts. The two last 
Ftates never paid him any salary. Even had they done 
so his income would not have met his reasonable needs; 
as it was, he was in financial straits much of the time. 
It was well that in his youth he had learned the prac- 
tical lessons of economy. 

During the years immediately preceding 1776, the 
position of any American representative in England 
was, as may now be readily understood, one of great del- 
icacy. Though Dr. Franklin showed himself possessed 
of marvelous wisdom, self-control, and tact, and though 
he had in an unparalleled degree the power of making 
friends under all sorts of circumstances, neverthe- 
less the situation was one of increasing friction between 
him and the English government. There is no space to 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

relate here the incident of the Hutchinson letters which 
aroused such bitter adverse feeling and so much malig- 
nant comment. To the present writer it seems as if 
these letters were the occasion, rather than the cause, of 
the outbreak of vindictive feeling and vituperation 
against the colonial agent. While the* relations between 
the mother country and the colonies were growing more 
and more strained, it was inevitable that the agent of 
the colonies should be the target of hostile criticism. 
This was a condition that his wise tact could neither 
alter nor control. The war was at hand, and no human 
power could prevent it. 'Not even Franklin's per- 
sistent optimism was able to accomplish this humane 
purpose. 

These ten years of Franklin's second ministry in 
England revealed him as a great man. " I^o American 
representative even to this day," says a modern writer, 
^^has ever been held in Europe in such estimation as 
was accorded to Franklin at this time.'' " All Eng- 
land practically treated him as the representative of all 
America." But despite all this, the time came when he 
could no longer be useful in that position. The criti- 
cisms, slanders, threats, rufHed him but slightly, but a di- 
rect and emphatic intimation from Walpole, that it 
would be best for all concerned that he should leave the 
country as early as possible, determined him finally to 
act. Fearing a possible arrest, he left London quietly, 
journeyed to Portsmouth with speed and secrecy, and 
sailed from that port to Philadelphia, where he arrived 



INTRODUCTION. xvii 

May 5, 1775, just in time to be chosen a delegate to the 
second Continental Congress, then abont to assemble. 

If Franklin's last days in England had been exciting, 
surely his first days after his return to America were 
exciting in the superlative degree. The battles of Lex- 
ington and Concord had been fought, and the pent up 
feeling of the determined patriots was breaking out in- 
flames of wrath. It is superfluous to say that this 
placid, gentle, tactful man, who for ten irritating years 
had counseled m.oderation and had hopefully predicted 
an amicable adjustment of differences, sided with his 
countrymen at the crisis. The following letter, dated 
July 5, 1775, is unique : — 

" Mr. Strahan, — You are a member of Parliament, 
and one of that majority which has doomed my coun- 
try to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns 
and murder our people. Look upon your hands; they 
are stained with the blood of your relations ! You and 
I were long friends ; you are now my enemy, — and 

" I am, 
^^ Yours, 

^^ B. Franklin.'' 

It may be added that the friendship between these 
two men was at a later date renewed. 

To Dr. Priestly he wrote that if Britain ^^ wishes to 
have us subjects . . . she is now giving us such 
miserable specimens of her government, that we shall 
ever detest and avoid it, as a combination of robbery, 
murder, fixe, famine, and pestilenca" 



XVIII INTRODUCTION. 

Though now nearly seventy years of age, Franklin 
was unremitting in his activity in behalf of his country. 
He even accepted a mission' that took him to Montreal 
to confer with Arnold concerning afPairs in Canada. 
This journey, undertaken late in the winter or early 
in the spring, subjected him to cruel exposures, consid- 
ering his years. In the Continental Congress he was 
one of the committee of five who drafted the Declara- 
tion of Independence, though the actual work upon this 
document was done almost entirely by Jefferson. It 
was at the signing of this that Franklin's humor bubbled 
out in his famous mot. The feeling of the members of 
the Congress was strained to a high pitch during the 
fixing of their signatures, and in the stillness, like the 
stillness of death, that followed, Hancock remarked that 
" we must all hang together now ! '' '' That's so, John,'' 
retorted Franklin, '' we must indeed all hang together, 
or assuredly we shall all hang separately." 

Later in the year 1776 he was sent as ambassador to 
the court of France and arrived in Paris the 21st of 
December. His duties were varied, for it really fell to 
him to guard the interests of his country in England as 
well as in France. The common bond of sympathy at 
that time between America and France was hatred, or 
rivalry, or jealousy, of the British. There was no need 
of his enlisting the sympathies of the French against 
the British, for they were already enlisted; and an im- 
portant and annoying duty was to head off the large 
numbers of adventurers who thirsted for military glory 



INTRODUCTION. xiX 

and were bent upon coming to America to be officers in 
the patriotic army. As for England, he was the lead- 
ing spirit that animated the privateers whose cruisers 
did so much damage to British commerce that the mer- 
chants and manufacturers, who have always been the 
bone and sinew of that practical nation, were struck 
with terror, and the whole island was reduced to the 
condition bi a tolerably effectual blockade. This fact, 
which has never been sufficiently emphasized in the his- 
tories of that period, is shown by the enormous rise of 
the rates of maritime insurance; which is unanswerable 
as an argument. 

That Franklin could upon occasion be caustic, as well 
as patient, gentle, and humorous, is seen in his corre- 
spondence with Lord Stormont. He addressed his lord- 
ship a letter on the subject of the exchange of prisoners 
of war, a subject which the haughty British government 
would not at that time take into humane consideration. 
/'No reply being received, a second and urgent letter was 
added. His lordship replied : ^^ The king's ambassador 
receives no applications from rebels, unless they come to 
implore his majesty's mercy." The American ambassa- 
dor returned the following : '' In answer to a letter 
which concerns some of the most material interests of 
humanity, and of the two nations, Great Britain and the 
United States of America, now at war, we received the 
inclosed indecent paper, as coming from your lord- 
ship, which we return for your lordship's -more mature 
consideration." It was many years before the British 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



government would accord just or humane treatment to 
American prisoners of war, and the situation required 
much patience, firmness, and wisdom. 

The first grand success scored on this mission was the 
Treaty of Alliance between France and the United 
States, which secured the independence of the latter. 
This was signed February 6, 1Y78. The treaty of 
peace with England was successfully negotiated by 
Franklin, Jay, and Adams, and was signed September 
3, 1783. Later he negotiated with Prussia a treaty 
which contained an article against privateering. This 
was an effective blow at what was then the universal 
practice, and distinctly an advance in the progress of 
civilization, for it recognized and endorsed the necessity 
of international morality. Washington said: "This 
treaty marks an era in negotiation. It is the most lib- 
eral treaty which has ever been entered into between 
independent powers." 

An important responsibility that fell to the lot of 
Franklin while in France was the raising of funds. 
There was at that date much glorious patriotism in 
AiTierica, but there was little cash and no visible means 
for securing the credit necessary to carry on a prolonged 
war. The fertility of Franklin's wisdom in meeting 
the difficulties of the situation, has hardly been sur- 
passed in the history of financiering. Space does not 
permit the discussion of this subject in this brief sketch, 
but the comment of a recent author, John T. Morse, Jr., 
may here be inserted : — 



INTRODUCTION. xxi 

^^ From first to last it was upon Franklin that the 
brunt [of raising the funds] fell ; he had to keep^ the 
country from financial failure as Washington had to 
save it from military failure ; he was the real financier 
of the Revolution; without him Eobert Morris would 
have been helpless. . . Franklin alone, at Paris, 
could tap the rock and make the waters flow. . . A 
heavier task ^ever fell on any man, nor one bringing less 
recognition. . . We read about the horrors of the 
winter camp at Valley Forge, and we shudder at all 
the details of the vivid picture. The anxiety, the toil, 
the humiliation, w^hich Franklin endured for manv 
winters and many summers in Paris, in sustaining the 
•national credit, do not make a picture, do not furnish 
material for a readable chapter in history. Yet many 
,a man would far rather have faced Washington's lot 
than Franklin's." 

In September, 1785, after an absence of nearly nine 
years, Franklin returned once more to his home, but not 
to a well-earned rest. Additional labors and responsi- 
bilities. Avere thrust upon him, though he was in his 
eightieth year. He was a man who simply could not 
be spared. The following month he was elected presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania, the term being for one year, and 
was twice re-elected. In 1787 he was delegate to the 
convention that met in Philadelphia to frame a consti- 
tution for the United States. It was at this convention 
that he made the motion for daily prayers. He said: — 
^' I have lived a long time, and the longer I live the 



xxii INTRODUCTION. 

more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God 
governs in the aflfairs of men. And if a sparrow can- 
not fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable 
that an empire can rise without his aid ? '' 

It was impossible, such was the independence of 
American thought, to frame a constitution, all parts of 
which would be satisfactory to all the members of the 
convention. Mutual concessions are on such an occa- 
sion necessary. Probably no person was fully satisfied 
with the finished work of the constitution, but a sensible 
and generous spirit prevailed and the delegates duly 
signed it. Franklin said: ^^ I consent to this constitu- 
tion because I expect no better, and because I am not 
sure that it is not the best." 

Franklin was the first president of the first abolition 
society ever organized in America, being elected to that 
position in 1788. One of his last acts semi-official 
in its nature, was signing, as president, a memorial ad- 
dress by that society to congress, praying that body to 
'" remove this inconsistency from the American people," 
to ^' promote mercy and justice towards this distr.essed 
race," and to discourage ^' every species of traffic in 
the persons of our fellow men." One Jackson, o*f 
Georgia, delivered in congress a speech in behalf of the 
institution of slavery, interspersing the speech with 
frequent scriptural quotations. To this Franklin re- 
plied, in one of the keenest satires of his life, by a 
parody on Jackson's speech. With great ingenuity he 
put Jackson's arguments into the mouth of a Moham- 



INTRODUCTION. xxiil 

medan of Algiers, with alleged quotations from the 
Koran, and pressed theae arguments as reasons for, con- 
tinuing to hold European Christians in slavery. 

He died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790, in the 
eighty-fifth year of his age. His remains were interred 
by the side of those of his wife in the cemetery of 
Christ Church, at the corner of Fifth and Arch streets. 
The grave is in the simplest manner covered with a 
plain slab, bearing only the inscription : 

Benjamin 

AND V Fkanklin. 

Deborah 

His natural son, Sir William Franklin, was brought 
up in the family. To the father's great disappoint- 
ment. Sir William became an extreme tory and was the 
royal governor of Isew Jersey. His mansion, now 
known as Westminster Hall, is still standing, slightly 
changed, in^ !Perth Amboy. A son of Sir Williaifr, 
William Temple Franklin, was for many years Benja- 
min's private secretary. 

Two children, a son and a daughter, were born to Dr. 
and Mrs. Franklin. The son died in infancy. The 
daughter, Sally, wedded Richard Bache of Yorkshire, 
England, and became the mother of eight children, from 
whom are descended all that are now known to inherit 
any of the blood of Benjamin Franklin. 
■ The story of Franklin's scientific experiment with his 
kite, demonstrating that the lightning was electricity, 



XXIV INTRODUCTION. 

is familiar to every school-boy. The account of these 
experiments was sent to a friend in England, who pre- 
sented the paper to the Koyal Society. It was received 
with derision and actually laughed out of court. The 
paper, however, was printed, though not in the trans- 
actions of the Royal Society, and coming to the notice 
of the celebrated French scientist, Buffon, it was trans- 
lated into French and caused no little stir among the 
savants of Continental Europe. The Royal Society 
then made haste to save its OAvn dignity and repair its 
blunder; no honors it could bestow were too great to 
heap upon the discoverer. A few years later, in 1759, 
the University of St. Andrews conferred on him the 
degree of LL.D. Still later the University of Oxford 
honored itself by giving him the degree of D.C.L. 
Thus he became Dr, Franklin. 

The phrase, " the many-sided Franklin," is deserved. 
One Avriter describes him as ^' philosopher, statesman, 
diplomatist, scientific discoverer, inventor, philanthro- 
pist, moralist and wit, while as a writer of English he 
was surpassed by few men of his time.'' . Another 
writer gives over forty specifications of the achieve- 
ments of this versatile man. Edward E2:gleston savs 
that " as he was the first American scientific discoverer 
of renown, the first American diplomatist, the founder 
of the first public library and the first permanent philo- 
sophical society in this country, so he was the first writer 
in the field of general literature/' George the Third, 
appa^-ej^tly iu a lucid intery^^ warned his ministexg 



INTRODUCTION. xxv 

against ^^that crafty American, who is more than a 
match for you all. The French poet, Turgot, felicit- 
ously connected his electrical discovery with his pro- 
ficiency in the cause of liberty, in the Latin epigram. 

" Eripuit coelo fulmen, spectrumque tyrannis.'' 

(He wrested the thunderbolt from heaven and the scep- 
tre from tyrants. ) 
He lived in an era of great men, — " there were giants 
on the earth in those days.'' One only towered above 
him. The first place, by universal consent, is given to 
Washington; but next after him, incontestably the 
greatest American of that age was Benjamin Franklin. 

Henry Ketcham. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 1 

Poor Richard's Almanac 215 

Plan for Saving One Hundred Thousand Pounds 232 

Necessary Hints to Those that would be Rich. 234 

Advice to a Young Tradesman 236 

Digging for Hidden Treasure 239 

Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America 246 

A Petition of the Left Hand 255 

The Whistle 257 

Dialogue Between Franklin and the Gout , 260 

The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams , 268 

The Ephemera: An Emblem of Human Life 274 

To Miss Georgiana Shipley, on the Loss of Her American 

Squirrel. 277 

Familiar Letters: 

L To Miss Jane Franklin , 279 

U. To Mrs. Jane Mecom 280 

in. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin 284 

IV. To Miss Hubbard......... ..o. 285 

V. To Mrs. Jane Mecom « 287 

VL To Miss Stevenson " 288 

VII. To Miss Stevenson , 295 

VIIL To Miss Stevenson 298 

IX. To Mrs. Stevenson 300 

X. To Benjamin Webb , 303 

XL To Samuel Mather » 304 

XII. To the Rev. Dr. Lathrop 305 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



CHAPTEE I. 



I HAVE ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little 
anecdotes of ray ancestors. You may remember the 
inquiries I made among the remains of my relations 
when you were with me in England, and tne journey 
I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be 
equally agreeable to you to learn the circumstances of 
iny life, many of which you are unacquainted with, 
and expecting the enjoyment of a few weeks' uninter- 
rupted leisure, I sit down to write them. Besides, 
there are some other inducements that excite me to 
this undertaking. From the poverty and obscurity in 
which I was born and in which I passed my earliest 
years, I have raised m^yself to a state of affluence and 
some degree of celebrity in the world. As constant 
good fortune has accompanied me even to an advanced 
period of life, my posterity will perhaps be desirous of 
learning the means which I employed, and which, 
thanks to Providence, so well succeeded with me. 
They may also deem them fit to be imitated, should 
any of them find themselves in similar circumstances. 

This good fortune, when I reflect on it (which is 



3 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

frequently the case), has induced me sometimes to say 
that if it were left to my choice I should have no 
objection to go over the same life from its beginning 
to the end ; requesting only the advantage authors 
have of correcting in a second edition the faults of the 
lirst. So would I also wish to change some incidents 
of it for others more favorable. Notwithstanding, if 
this condition was denied I should still accept the oflFer 
recommencing the same life. But as this repetition is 
not to be expected, that which resembles most living 
one's life over again seems to be to recall all the cir- 
cumstances of it, and, to render this remembrance 
more durable, to record them in writing. 

In thus employing myself, I shall yield to the inclina- 
tion, so natural to old men, of talking of themselves 
and their own actions ; and I shall indulge it without 
being tiresome to those who, from respect to my age, 
might conceive themselves obliged to listen to me, 
since thev will be alwavs free to read me or not. 
And lastly (I may as well confess it, as the denial of 
it would be believed by nobody), I shall, perhaps, not 
a little gratify my own vanity. Indeed, 1 never heard 
or saw the introductory words, " Without vanity I 
may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately 
followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, what- 
ever share they have of it themselves ; but I give it 
fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded 
that it is often productive of good to the possessor and 
to others who are within his sphere of action ; and 
therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether 
absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity 
among the other comforts of life. 

And now 1 speak of thanking God, I desire with all 



BENJAMIN FBANKLIN, 3 

humility to acknowledge that I attribute the mentioned 
happiness of m}^ past life to his divine providence, 
which led me to the means I used and gave the success. 
My belief of this induces me to^A6)^^, though I must 
not jpreisuine^ that the same goodness will still be 
exercised toward me in continuing that happiness or 
enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, w^hich I may ex- 
perience as others have done ; the complexion of my 
f uiure fortune being known to Him only in whose 
power it is to bless us, even in our afflictions. 

Some notes which one of my uncles, who had the 
same curiosity in collecting family anecdotes, once put 
into my hands, furnished me with several particulars 
relative to our ancestors. From these notes 1 learned 
that they lived in the same village, Ecton, in 
Northamptonshire, on a freehold of about thirty acres, 
for at least three hundred years, and how much longer 
could not be ascertained. 

This small estate would not have sufficed for their 
maintenance without the business of a smith which 
had continued in the family down to my uncle's time, 
the eldest son being always brought up to that em- 
ployment ; a custom which he and my father followed 
with regard to their eldest sons. When I searched 
the registers at Ecton I found an account of their 
marriages and burials from the year 1555 only, as the 
registers kept did not commence previous thereto. 
I, however, learned from it that I was the youngest 
son of the youngest son for five generations back. My 
grandfather, Thomas, who w^as born in 1598, lived at 
Ecton till he was too old to continue bis business^ 
when he retired to Banbury, in Oxfordshire, to the 
house of his son John, with whom my father served 



4 ATIT0BI0GRAPH7 OF 

an apprenticeship. There my uncle died and lies 
buried. We saw his grave-stone in 1758. His eldest 
son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it, 
with the land, to his only daughter, who, with her 
husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. 
Isted, now lord of the manor there. My grandfather 
had four sons, who grew up, viz., Thomas, John, 
Benjamin, and Josiah. Being at a distance from my 
papers, I will give you what account I can of them 
from memory ; and if my papers are not lost in my 
absence, you will find among them many more 
particulars. 

Thomas, my oldest uncle, was bred a smith under 
his father, but being ingenious and encouraged in 
learning, as all his brothers were, by an Esquire 
Palmer, then the principal inhabitant of that parish, he 
qualified himself for the bar and became a considerable 
man in the county ; was ciiief mover of all public- 
spirited enterprises for the county or town of North- 
ampton, as well as of his own village, of which many 
instances were related of hini ; and he was much taken 
notice of and patronized by Lord Halifax. He died in 
1702, the 6th of January, four years to a da}^ before I 
was born. The recital which some elderly persons 
made to us of his character I remember struck you as 
something extraordinary, from its similarity with what 
you knew of me. "Had he died," said you, " four 
years later on the same day, one might have supposed 
a transmigration." 

John, my next uncle, was bred a dyer, I believe of 
wool, Benjamin was bred a silk-dyer, serving an 
apprenticeship in London. He was an ingenious man. 
I remember when I was a boy he came to my father's in 



BENJAMIN FBANELm. 5 

Boston and resided in the house with us for several 
years. There was always a particular affection 
between my father and him, and I was his godson. He 
lived to a great age. He left behind him two quarto 
volumes of manuscript of his own poetry, consisting of 
fugitive pieces addressed to his friends. He had 
invented a short-hand of his own, which he taught me; 
but not having practiced it I have now forgotten it. 
He was very pious and an assiduous attendant at the 
sermons of the best preachers, which he reduced to 
writing according to his method, and had thus collected 
several volumes of them. 

He was also a good deal of a politician; too much so, 
perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into my 
hands, in London, a collection he had made of all the 
principal political pamphlets relating to public affairs 
from the year 1641 to 1717. Many of the volumes are 
wanting, as appears by their numbering ; but there still 
remain eight volumes in folio and twenty in quarto 
and in octavo. A dealer in old books had met with 
them, and knowing me by name, having bought books 
of him, he brought them to me. It would appear that 
my uncle must have left them here when he went to 
America, which was about fift}'' years ago. I found 
several of his notes in the margins. His grandson, 
Samuel Franklin, is still living in Boston. 

Our humble family early embraced the reformed 
religion. Our forefathers continued Protestants 
through the reign of Mary, when they were sometimes 
in danger of persecution on account of their zeal 
against popery. They had an English Bible, and to 
conceal it and place it in safety, it was fastened open 
with tapes under and within the cover of a joint stooL 



6 AUT0BI0GBAPH7 OF 

When my great-grandfather wished to read it to his 
family, he placed the joint stool on his knees and then 
turned over the leaves under the tapes. One of the 
children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the 
apparitor coming, who was an ofticer of toe spiritual 
court. In that case the stool was turned down again 
upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under 
it as before. This anecdote I had from Uncle Benja- 
min. The family continued all of the Church of 
England till about the end of Charles the Second's reign, 
when some of the ministers that had been ousted for 
their non-conformity, holding conventicles in North- 
amptonshire, my Uncle Benjamin and my father Josiah 
adhered to them, and so continued all their lives. The 
rest of the family remained with the Episcopal Church. 
My father married young, and carried his wife, with 
three children, to New England about 1685. The 
conventicles being at that time forbidden by law and 
frequently disturbed in the meetings, some consider- 
able men of his acquaintances determined to go to that 
country, and he was prevailed with to accompany 
them thither, where they expected to enjoy the exer- 
cise of their religion with freedom. By the same wife 
my father had four children more born there, and by 
a second ten others — in all seventeen; of whom I 
remember to have seen thirteen sitting together at his 
table, who all grew up to 3'^ears of maturity and were 
married. I was the youngest son and the youngest of 
all the children except two daughters. I was born in 
Boston, in New England. M}'^ mother, the second 
wife of my father, was Abiah Folger, daughter of 
Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, 
of whom honorable mention is made by Cotton Mather 




BIRTHPLACE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
Milk Street opposite Old South Church, Boston. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 7 

in his ecclesiastical history of that country, entitled 
"Magnalia Christi Americana," as "a godly and 
learned Englishman,'' if I remember the words rightly. 
I was informed he wrote se-veral small occasional 
works, but only one of them was printed, w^hich I 
remember to have seen several years since. It was 
written in 1675. It was in familiar verse, according 
to the taste of the times and people, and addressed to 
the government there. It asserts the liberty of con- 
science in behalf of the Anabaptist, the Quakers, and 
other sectaries that had been persecuted. He attrib- 
utes to this persecution the Indian wars and other 
calamities that had befallen the country, regarding 
them as so many judgments of God to punish so 
heinous an ofiFense and exhorting the repeal of those 
laws, so contrary to charity. This piece appeared to 
me as written with manly freedom and a pleasing 
simplicity. The six lines I remember, but have 
forgotten the preceding ones of the stanza; the purport 
of them was that his censures proceeded from good 
will, and therefore he would be known to be the 
author: 

" Because to be a libeler 

I hate it with my heart. 
From Sherbon Town* where now I dwell, 

My name I do put here; 
Without offense your real friend, . 

Itis Peter Folger." 

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to 
different trades. I was put to the grammar school at 
eight years of age, my father intending to devote me 

'* In the Island of Nantucket. 



8 AUT0BI0GRAPE7 OF 

as the tithe of his sons to the service of the ChuroK 
My early readiness in learning to read, which must 
have been ver}^ early, as I do not remember when I 
could not read, and the opinion of all his friends that 
1 should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged 
him in this purpose of his. My Uncle Benjamin, too, 
approved of it, and proposed to give me his short-hand 
volumes of sermons to set up with if I would learn his 
short-hand- I continued, however, at the grammar 
school rather less than a year, though in that time I 
had risen graduallj^ from the middle of the class of 
that year to be at the head of the same class, and w^as 
removed into the next class, whence I was to be placed 
in the third at the end of the year. 

But my father, burdened with a numerous family, 
was unable, without inconvenience, to support the 
expense of a college education. Considering, more- 
over, as he said to one of his friends in my presence, 
the little encouragement that line of life afforded to 
those educated for it, he gave up his first intentions, 
took me from the grammar school, and sent me to a 
school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then 
famous man, Mr. George BrownwelL He was a skill- 
ful master and succeeded m his profession, employing 
the mildest and most encouraging methods. Under 
him I learned to write a good hand pretty soon, but I 
failed entirely in arithmetic. At ten years old I was 
taken to help my father in his business, which was 
that of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler ; a business 
to which he was not bred, but had assumed on his 
arrival in New England, because he found that his 
dyeing trade, being in little request, would not main- 
Xrn^ hi§ family* Accordingly 1 was employed in cutting 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 9 

Wicks for the candles, filling the molds for cast candles, 
attending the shop, going of errands, etc. 

I disliked the trade and had a strong inclination to 
go to sea, but my father declared against it. But 
residing near the water 1 was much in it and on it. I 
learned to swim well and to manage boats, and when 
embarked with other boys I was commonly allowed to 
govern, especially in any case of difficulty ; and upon 
other occasions I was generally the leader among the 
boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of whichl 
will mention one instance, as it shows an early project- 
ing public spirit, though not then justly conducted. 
There was a salt marsh w^hich bounded part of the 
mill-pond on the edge of which, at high water, we used 
to stand to fish for minnows. B}^ much trampling we 
had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to 
build a wharf there for us to stand upon, and I showed 
my comrades a large heap of stones which were 
intended for a new house near the marsh and which 
would very well suit our purpose. Accordinglj^ in the 
evening, when the workmen were gone home, I assem- 
bled a number of my playfellows, and we worked 
diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or 
three to a stone, till we brought them all to make our 
little wharf. The next morning the workmen were 
surprised at missing the stones, which had formed our 
wharf. Inquiry was made after the authors of this 
transfer; wg were discovered, complained of, and 
corrected by cur fathers ; and though I demonstrated 
the utility of our work, mine convinced me that that 
which was not honest could not be truly useful. 

1 suppose you may like to know what kind of a man 
jn^ Mh^v ¥/a^ H^ hm m excellent ooastitution^ was of 



10 A UT0BI0GRAPH7 OF 

a middle stature, well set, and very strong. He could 
draw prettily and was skilled a little in musia His 
voice was sonorous and agreeable, so that when he 
played on his violin and sung withal, as he was accus- 
tomed to do after the business of the day was over, it 
was extremely agreeable to hear. He had some knowl 
edge of mechanics, and on occasion was very handy 
with other tradesmen's tools. Bat his great excel- 
lence was his sound understanding and his solid judg- 
ment in prudential matters, both in private and public 
affairs. It is true he was never employed in the latter, 
the numerous family he had to educate and the strait- 
ness of his circumstances keeping him close to his 
trade, but I remember well his being frequently visited 
by leading men, who consulted him for his opinion in 
public affairs and those of the church he belonged to, 
showing a great respect for his judgment and advice. 
He was also much consulted by private persons 
about their affairs when any difficulty occurred, and 
frequently chosen an arbitrator between contending 
parties. At his table he liked to have, as often as he 
could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse 
with, and always took care to start some ingenious or 
useful topic for discourse which might tend to improve 
the minds of his children. By this means he turned 
our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in 
the conduct of life, and little or no notice was ever 
taken of what related to the victuals on the table, 
whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, 
of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to this oi 
that other thing of the kind ; so that I was brought 
up m such a perfect inattention to those matters as to 
be quite indifferent what kind of food was set before 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, U 

me. Indeed, I am so unobservant of it that to this 
day I can scarce tell a few hours after dinner of what 
dishes it consisted. This has been a great convenience 
to me in traveling, where my conrpanions have been 
sometimes very unhappj^ for want of a suitable grati- 
fication of their more delicate, because better instructed, 
tastes and appetites. 

My m.other had likewise an excellent constitution ; 
she suckled all her ten children. I never knew either 
my father or mother to have any sickness but that of 
which they died ; he at eighty -nine and she at eighty- 
five years of age. They lie buried together at Boston^ 
where I some years since placed a marble over their 
grave with this inscription : 

JOSIAH FRANKLIN 

and 
ABIAH his wife, 

Lie here interred. 

They lived lovingly topjether in wedlocks 

Fifty-five years; 

And without an estate or any gainful employment, 

By constant labor, and honest industry, 

(With God's blessing,) 

Maintained a large family comfortably; 

And brought up thirteen children and seven grandchildren 

Eeputably. 

From this instance, Reader, 

Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, 

And distrust not Providence. 

He was a pious and prudent man, 

She a discreet and virtuous woman. 

Their youngest son, 

In filial regard to their memory. 

Places this stone. 

J. F. born 1655; died 1744. Mt. 89. 

A. F. born 1667; died 1753. Mi. 85. 



13 AUTOBTOOEAPHY OF 

By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be 
grown old. I used to write more methodically. But 
one does not dress for private company as for a public 
ball. Perhaps it is only negligence. 

To return : I continued thus employed in my father's 
business for two years, that is, tilll was twelve years 
old ; and my brother John, who was bred to that busi- 
ness, having left my father, married and set up for 
himself at Rhode Island, there was every appearance 
that I was destined to supply his place and become a 
tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the trade continu- 
ing, my father had apprehensions that if he did not 
put me to one more agreeable I should break loose 
and go to sea, as my brother Josiah had done, to his 
great vexation. In consequence, he took me to walk 
with him and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, 
etc, at their work, that he might observe my inclina- 
tion and endeavor to fix it on some trade or profession 
that would keep me on land. It has ever since been 
a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their 
tools. And it has been often useful to me to have 
learned so much by it as to be able to do some trifling 
jobs in the house when a workman was not at hand, 
and to construct little machines for my experiments at 
the moment when the intention of making these was 
warm in my mind. My father determined at last for 
the cutler's trade, and placed me for some da3^s on 
trial with Samuel, son to my Uncle Benjamin, who 
was bred to that trade in London and had just estab- 
lished himself in Boston. But the sum he exacted as 
a fee for my apprenticeship displeased my father, and 
I was taken home again. 

From my infancy I was passionately fond of read- 



BENJAMm FRANELIK 13 

ing, and all the money that came into my hands -was 
laid out in the purchasing of books. I was very fond 
of voyages. My first acquisition, was Banyan's works 
in separate little volumes. I afterward sold them to 
enable me to buy E. Burton's " Historical CoUec 
tions." They were small chap-men's books,* and cheap, 
forty volumes in alL My father's little library con- 
sisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of 
which I read. I have often regretted that at a time 
when I had such a thirst for knowledge more proper 
books had not fallen in my way, since it was resolved 
I should not be bred to divinity. There was among 
them Plutarch's " Lives," which I read abundantly, 
and I still think that time spent to great advantage. 
There was also a book of Defoe's, called " An Essay 
on Projects," and another of Dr. Mather's, called " An 
Essay to Do Good," which perhaps gave me a turn of 
thinking that had an influence on some of the principal 
future events of my life. 

This bookish inclination at length determined my 
father to make me a printer, Llthough he had already 
one son, James, of that profession. In 1717 my 
brother James returned from England, with a press 
and letters, to set up his business in Boston. I liked 
it much better than that of my father, but still had a 
hankering for the sea. To prevent the apprehended 
effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient 

* Commonly called •* chap-books," a term applied to popular 
story-books which in former days used to be hawked about by 
chap-men; such as *' Tom Hicka thrift," *' Jack the Giant KiUer," 
etc. Burton's histories were of rather a better class and com- 
prised*' The English Hero; or, Sir Francis Drake Revived;" 
"Admirable Curiosities," etc., etc. 



14 A UT0B10GRAPH7 OF 

to have me bound to my brother. I stood out some 
time, but at last was persuaded and signed the inden- 
ture when I was yet but twelve years old. I was to 
serve an apprenticeship till I was twenty-one years of 
age, only I was to be allowed journeyman's wages 
during the last year. In a little time I made a great 
progress in the business and became a useful hand to my 
brother. I now had access to better books. An ac- 
quaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled 
me sometimes to borrow a small one, w^hich I was care- 
ful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in ray 
chamber reading the greatest part of the night when 
the book was borrowed in the evening and to be re- 
turned in the morning, lest it should be found missing. 
After some time a merchant, an ingenious, sensible 
man, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection 
of books, frequented our printing-otfice, took notice of 
me, and invited me to see his library and very kindly 
proposed to loan me such books as I chose to read. I 
now took a strong inclination for poetry and wrote 
some little pieces. My brother, supposing it might 
turn to account, encouraged me and induced me to 
compose two occasional ballads. One was called " The 
Light-House Tragedy," and contained an account of 
the shipwreck of Captain Worthilake with his two 
daughters ; the other was a sailor's song, on the taking 
of the famous Teach, or '' Blackbeard," the pirate. 
They were wretched stuft, in street-ballad style ; and 
when they were printed my brother sent me about the 
town to sell them. The first sold prodigiously, the 
event being recent and having made a great noise. 
This success flattered my vanity ; but my father dis- 
couraged me by criticising my performances and 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 15 

telling mo verse-makers were generally beggars. 
Thus I escaped being a poet, and probably a ver}^ bad 
one ; but as prose-writing had been of great use to me 
in the course of my life and was a principal means of 
my advancement, I shall tell you how in such a 
situation I acquired what little ability I may be 
supposed to have in that way. 

There was another bookish lad in the town, John 
Collins by name, with whom I w^as intimately ac- 
quainted. We sometimes disputed, and very fond we 
were of argument and very desirous of confuting one 
another; which disputatious turn, by the way, is apt 
to become a very bad habit, making people often ex- 
tremely disagreeable in company by the contradiction 
that is necessary to bring it into practice, and thence, 
besides souring and spoiling the conversation, it is 
productive of disgusts, and perhaps enmities, with 
those who may have occasion for friendship. I had 
caught this by reading my father's books of dispute on 
religion. Persons of good sense, 1 have since observed, 
seldom fall into it, except lawyers, university men, 
and generally men of all sorts who have been bred at 
Edinburgh. 

A question was once, somehow or other, started 
between Collins and me on the propriety of educating 
the female sex in learning and their abilities for study. 
He was of opinion that it was improper and that they 
were naturally unequal to it. I took the contrar\^ 
side, perhaps a little for dispute's sake. He was 
naturally more eloquent, having a greater plenty of 
words, and sometimes, as I thought, I was vanquished 
more by his fluency than by the strength of his 
reasons. As we.parted without settling the point and 



16 • AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

were not to see one another again for some time, I sat 
down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied 
fair and sent to him. He answered and I replied. 
Three or four letters on a ^ide had passed, when my 
father happened to find my papers and read them. 
Without entering into the subject in dispute, he took 
occasion to talk to me about my manner of Avriting ; 
observed that though I had the advantage of my 
antagonist in correct spelling and pointing (which he 
attributed to the printing-house), 1 fell far short in 
elegance of expression, in method, and in perspicuity, 
of which he convinced me by several instances. I 
saw the justice of his remarks, and thence grew more 
attentive to my manner of writing and determined to 
endeavor to improve my style. At this time I met 
with an odd volume of the "Spectator." I had never 
before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over 
and over, and was much delighted with it. 1 thought 
the writing excellent, and wished if possible to imitate 
it. With that view I took some of the papers, and 
making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence, 
laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at 
the book, tried to complete the papers again, by ex- 
pressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully 
as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words 
that should occur to me. Then I compared my 
" Spectator " with the original, discovered some of 
my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted 
a stock of words or a readiness in recollecting and 
using them, which I thought I should have acquired 
before that time if I had gone on making verses ; since 
the continual search for words of the same import, 
but of different length to suit the measure or of 



BENJAMm FRANKLm. 17 

diiferent sound for the rhyme, would have laid me 
under a constant necessity of searchino^ for variety, 
and also have tended to fix that variety in ray mind 
and make me master of it. Therefore I took some of 
the tales in the "Spectator" and* turned them into 
verse ; and after a time, when I had pretty well 
forgotten the prose, turned them back again. 

I also sometimes jumbled ray collection of hints into 
confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce 
them into the best order before I began to form the 
full sentences and complete the subject. This was to 
teach me method in the arrangement of the thoughts. 
By comparing my work with the original, I discovered 
many faults and corrected them : but I sometimes had 
the pleasure to fancy that in certain particulars of 
small consequence I had been fortunate enough to 
improve the method or the language, and this en- 
couraged me to think that I might in time come to be 
a tolerable English writer, of which 1 was extremely 
ambitious. The time I allotted for writing exercises 
and for reading was at night, or before work began 
in the morning, or on Sundays, when I contrived to 
be in the printing-house, avoiding as much as I could 
the constant attendance at public worship which my 
father used to exact of me when I was under his care, 
and which I still continued to consider a duty, though 
I could not afford time to practice it. 

When about sixteen years of age I happened to meet 
with a book, written by one Tryon, recomraending a 
veo;etable diet. I determined to go into it. My brother 
being yet unmarried did not keep house, but boarded 
himself and his apprentices in another family.. My refus- 
ing to eat flesh occasioned aa inconvenience, and I was 



18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

frequently chid for my singularity. I made myself 
acquainted with Tryon's manner of preparing some of 
his dishes, such as boiling potatoes or rice, making 
hasty-pudding and a few others, and then proposed to 
my brother that if he would give me weekly half the 
money he paid for my board, I would board myself. 
He instantly agreed to it, and I presently found that 
I could save half what he paid me. This was an ad- 
ditional fund for buying of books ; but I had another 
advantage in it. My brother and the rest going from 
the printing-house to their meals, I remained there 
alone, and dispatching presently my light repast 
(which was often no more than a biscuit or a slice of 
bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the pastry- 
cook's, and a glass of water), had the rest of the time 
till their return for study ; in which I made the greater 
progress from that greater clearness of head and 
quicker apprehension which generally attend temper- 
ance in eating and drinking. Now it was that (being 
on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance in 
figures, which I had twice failed learning when at 
school) I took Cocker's book on " Arithmetic," and 
went through the whole by myself with the greatest 
ease. 1 also read Seller's and Sturny's book on " Navi- 
gation," which made me acquainted with the little 
geometry it contains ; but I never proceeded far in 
that science. I read about this time Locke " On 
Human Understanding" and '' The Art of Thinking," 
by Messrs. de Port-Royal. 

While I w^as intent on improving my language I met 
with an English grammar (I think it was Greenwood's), 
having at the end of it two little sketches on the arts 
of rhetoric and logic, the latter finishing with a dispute 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 19 

in the Socratic method ; and soon after I procured 
Xenophon's "•' Memorable Things of Socrates,'' wherein 
there are many examples of the same method. I was 
charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my abrupt con- 
tradictions and positive argumentation, and put on the 
humble inquirer. And being then, from reading 
Shaftesbury and Collins, made a doubter, as I alread}^ 
was in many points of our religious doctrines, I found 
this method the safest for m3"self and very embarrass- 
ing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took 
delight in it, practiced it continually, and grew very 
artful and expert in drawing people even of superior 
knowledge into concessions the consequence of which 
they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out 
of which they could not extricate themselves, and so 
obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause 
always deserved. 

1 continued this method some few 3^ears, but grad- 
ually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing 
myself in terms of modest diflBdence, never using, 
when I advanced anything that may possibly be dis- 
puted, the words certainly^ undoubtedly^ or anj^- others 
that give the air of positiveness to an opinion ; but 
rather say, / concewe O'C apprehend a thing to be so and 
so ; It appears to me^ or, / should not thhik it, so or so, 
for such and such reasons ; or, / imagine it to he so; or, 
It is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit, I believe, 
has been of great advantage to me w^hen I have had 
occasion to inculcate my opinions and persuade men 
into measures that I have been from time to time en- 
gaged in promoting. And as the chief ends of con- 
versation are to inform or to he informed, to p>lease or 
to persuade^ I wish well-meaning and sensible men 



20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

would not lessen their power of doing good by a 
positive assuming manner that seldom fails to disgust, 
tends to create opposition, and to defeat most of those 
purposes for which speech was given to us. In fact, 
if you wish to instruct others, a positive dogniatical 
manner in advancing your sentiments may occasion 
opposition and prevent a candid attention. If you 
desire instruction and improvement from others, you 
should not at the same time express yourself fixed in 
your present opinions. Modest and sensible men, who 
do not love disputation, will leave you undisturbed in 
the possession of your errors. In adopting such a 
manner, you can seldom expect to please your hearers 
or obtain the concurrence you desire. Pope judiciously 
observes — 

*' Men must be taught as if you taught them not» 
And things unknown proposed as things forgot." 

He also commended it to us 

**To speak, though sure, with seeming difGidence." 

And he might have joined with this line that which 
he has coupled with another, I think, less properly — 

'* For want of modesty is want of sense." 

If you ask, Why less properly ? I must repeat the 

lines, 

'* Immodest words admit of no defense, 
For want of modesty is want of sense." 

Now, is not the want of sense ^ where a man is so unfor- 
tunate as to want it, some apology for his want of 
modesty ? And would not the lines stand more justly 
thus ? 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 21 

** Immodest words admit hitt this defense, 
That want of modesty is want of sense.'' 

This, however. I should submit to better judgments. 

My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a 
newspaper. It was the second that appeared in 
America and was called the N^ew England CouranL 
The only one before it was the Boston News-Letter. I 
remember his being dissuaded by some of his friends 
from the undertaking as not likely to succeed, one 
newspaper being in their judgment enough for America. 
At this time, 1771, there are not less than twenty-five. 
He went on, however, with the undertaking. I was 
employed to carry the papers to the customers after 
having worked in composing the types and printing off 
the sheets. 

He had some ingenious men among his friends, who 
amused themselves by writing little pieces for this 
paper, which gained it credit and made it more in de- 
mand, and these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing 
their conversations and their accounts of the approba- 
tion their papers were received with, I was excited to 
try my hand among them. But being still a boy, and 
suspecting that my brother would object to printing 
anything of mine in his paper if he knew it to be mine, 
I contrived to disguise my hand, and writing an 
annonymous paper, I put it at night under the door of 
the printing-house. It was found in the morning and 
communicated to his writing friends when they called 
in as usual. They read it, commented on it in my 
hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of finding it 
met with their approbation, and that in their different 
guesses at the author none were named but men of 



22 AUT0BI0GRAPH7 OF 

some character among us for learning and ingenuity. 
I suppose that I was rather lucky in my judges, and 
that they were not really so very good as I then be- 
lieved them to be. Encouraged, however, by this 
attempt, I wrote and sent in the same way to the press 
several other pieces that w^ere equally approved ; and I 
kept my secret till all my fund of sense for such per- 
formances was exhausted, and then discovered it, 
when I began to be considered a little more by my 
brother's acquaintance. 

However, that did not quite please him, as he 
thought it tended to make me too vain. This might 
be one occasion of the differences we began to have 
about this time. Though a brother, he considered 
himself as my master and me as his apprentice, and 
accordingly expected the same services from me as he 
would from another, while I thought he degraded me 
too much in some he required of me, who from a 
brother expected more indulgence. Our disputes were 
often brought before our father, and I fancy I was 
either generally in the right or else a better pleader, 
because the judgment was generaJly in my favor. 
But my brother was passionate and had often beaten 
me, which I took extremely amiss; and thinking my 
apprenticeship very tedious, I was continually wishing 
for some opportunity of shortening it, which at length 
offered in a manner unexpected. Perhaps this harsh 
and tyrannical treatment of me might be a means of 
impressing me with the aversion to arbitrary power 
that has stuck to me through my whole life. 

One of the pieces in our newspaper on some political 
point, which I have now forgotten, gave offense to the 
Assembly. He was taken up, censured, and imprisoned 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 23 

for a month by the Speaker's warrant, I suppose be- 
cause he would not discover the author. I, too, was 
taken up and exaramed before the Council ; but 
though I did not give them any satisfaction, they con- 
tented themselves with admonishing me, and dismissed 
me, considering me perhaps as an apprentice who was 
bound to keep his master's secrets. During my 
brother's confinement, which I resented a good deal, not- 
withstanding our private differences, I had the manage- 
ment of the paper; and I made bold to give our rulers 
some rubs in it, which my brother took very kindly, 
while others began to consider me in an unfavorable 
light as a youth who had a turn for libeling and 
satire. 

My brother's discharge was accompanied with an 
order, and a very odd one, that " James Franklin 
should no longer print the newspaper called the 
New England CourantP On a consultation held in 
our printing-office among his friends what he should 
do in this conjuncture, it was proposed to elude the 
order by changing the name of the paper. But my 
brother, seeing inconveniences in this, came to a con- 
clusion, as a better way, to let the paper in future be 
printed in the name of Benjamin Franklin ; and in 
order to avoid the censure of the Assembly, that 
might fall on him as still printing it by his apprentice, 
he contrived and consented that my old indenture 
should be returned to me with a discharge on the back 
of it, to show in case of necessity ; and in order to 
secure to him the benefit of my service, I should sign 
new indentures for the remainder of my time, which 
were to be kept private. A very flimsy scheme it 
was ; however, it was immediately executed, and the 



24 AUT0B10GRAPE7 OF 

paper was printed accordingl}'^, under my name, for 
several months. 

At length, a fresh difference arising between my 
brother and me, I took upon me to assert m}^ freedom, 
presuming that he would not venture to produce the 
new indentures. It was not fair in me to take this 
advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first 
errata of my life ; but the unfairness of it weighed 
little with me when under the impressions of resent- 
ment for the blows his passion too often urged him to 
bestow upon me. Though he was otherwise not an 
ill-natured man ; perhaps I was too saucy and pro- 
voking. 

When he found I would leave him, he took care to 
prevent my getting employment in any other printing- 
house of the town by going round and speaking to 
every master, who accordingly refused to give me work. 
I then thought of going to New York, as the nearest 
place where there was a printer. And I was rather 
inclined to leave Boston when I reflected that I had 
already made myself a little obnoxious to the govern- 
ing party, and from the arbitrary proceedings of the 
Assembly in my brother's case, it was likely I might, 
if I stayed, soon bring myself into scrapes ; and further, 
that my indiscreet disputations about religion began 
to make me pointed at with horror by good people as 
an infidel and atheist. I concluded, therefore, to 
remove to New York ; but my father now siding with 
my brother, I was sensible that if I attempted to go 
openly means would be used to prevent me. My 
friend Collins, therefore, undertook to manage my 
flight. He agreed with the captain of a New York 
sloop to take me, under pretense of my being a young 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 35 

man of his acquaintance that had an intrigue with a 
girl of bad character, whose parents would compel me 
to marry her, and that I could neither appear nor come 
away publicly. I sold my books to raise a little 
money, was taken on board the sloop privately, had a 
fair wind, and in three days found myself at New 
York, near three hundred miles from my home, at 
the age of seventeen (October, 1723), without the least 
recommendation or knowledge of any person in the 
place^ and very little money in my pocket. 



26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER II. 

The inclination I had had for the sea was by this 
time done away, or I might now have gratified it. 
But having another profession and conceiving my self 
a pretty good workman, I offered my services to a 
printer of the place, old Mr. "William Bradford, who 
had been the first printer in Penns3dvania, but had 
removed thence in consequence of a quarrel with the 
governor, George Keith. He could give me no em- 
ployment, having little to do and hands enough 
already ; but he said, " My son at Philadelphia has 
lately lost his principal hand^ Aquila Rose, by death ; 
if you go thither I believe he may employ you." 
Philadelphia was one hundred miles further. I set 
out, however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving my chest 
and things to follow me round by sea. 

In crossing the bay we met with a squall that tore 
our rotten sails to pieces, preventing our getting into 
the Kill, and drove us upon Long Island. In our way 
a drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger too, fell 
overboard ; when he was sinking I reached through 
the water to his shock pate and drew him up, so that 
we got him in again. His ducking sobered him a 
little and he went to sleep, taking first out of his 
pocket a book, which he desired I would dry for him. 
It proved to be my old favorite author, Bunyan's 
" Pilgrim's Progress," in Dutch, finely printed on good 



BENJAMIN FBANKLIN. 2? 

paper, copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever seen 
it wear in its own language. I have since found that 
it has been translated into most of the languages of 
Europe, and suppose it has been^more generally read 
than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. 
Honest John was the first that I know of who mixed 
narration and dialogue : a method of writing very 
engaging to the reader, who in the most interesting 
parts find himself, as it were, admitted into the com- 
pany and present at the conversation. Defoe has 
imitated him successfully in his " Robinson Crusoe," 
in his " Moll Flanders," and other pieces ; and Richard- 
son has done the same in his " Pamela," etc. 

On approaching the island we found it was in a 
place where there could be no landing, there being a 
great surge on the stony beach. So we dropped 
anchor and swung out our cable toward the shore. 
Some people came down to the shore and hallooed to 
us, as we did to them ; but the wind was so high and 
the surge so loud that we could not understand each 
other. There were some small boats near the shore, 
and we made signs and called to them to fetch us ; 
but they either did not comprehend us or it was 
impracticable, so they went off. Night approaching, 
we had no remedy but to have patience till the wind 
abated, and in the mean time the boatmen and myself 
concluded to sleep if we could ; and so we crowded 
into the hatches, where we joined the Dutchman, who 
was still wet, and the spray, breaking over the head of 
our boat, leaked through to us, so that we were soon 
almost as wet as he. In this manner we lay all night, 
with very little rest ; but the wind abating the next 
day, we made a shift to reach Amboy before nighty 



28 AUTOBIOGRAPHT OF 

having been thirty hours on the water, without 
victuals or any drink but a bottle of filthy rum, the 
w^ater we sailed on being salt. 

In the evening I found myself very feverish and 
went to bed ; but having read somewhere that cold 
water drunk plentifully was good for fever, I followed 
the prescription and sweat plentifully most of the 
night. My fever left me, and in the morning, crossing 
the ferry, I proceeded on my journey on foot, having 
fifty miles to goto Burlington, where I was told I should 
find boats that would carry me the rest of the way to 
Philadelphia. 

It rained very hard all the day ; I was thoroughly 
soaked, and by noon a good deal tired ; so I stopped 
at a poor inn, where I stayed all night, beginning now 
to wish I had never left home. I made so miserable 
a figure, too, that I found, by the questions asked me, 
I was suspected to be some runaway indentured 
servant and in danger of being taken up on that sus- 
picion. However, I proceeded next day and got in 
the evening to an inn within eight or ten miles of 
Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown. He entered into 
conversation with me while I took some refreshment, 
and finding I had read a little, became very obliging 
and friendly. Our acquaintance continued all the 
rest of his life. He had been, I imagine, an ambula- 
tory quack doctor, for there was no town in England 
nor any country in Europe of which he could not give 
a very particular account. He had some letters, and 
was ingenious, but he was an infidel, and wickedly 
undertook, some years after, to turn the Bible into 
doggerel verse, as Cotton had formerly done with 
Virgil. By this means he set many facts in a ridicu- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 29 

Ions light, and might have done mischief with weak 
minds if his work had been published ; but it never 
was. 

At his house I lay that night, and arrived the next 
morning at Burlington, but had the mortification to 
find that the regular boats were gone a little before, 
and no other expected to go before Tuesday, this 
being Saturday. Wherefore I returned to an old 
woman in the town, of whom I had bought some 
gingerbread to eat on the water, and asked her advice. 
She proposed to lodge me till a passage by some other 
boat occurred. I accepted her oflfer, being much 
fatigued by traveling on foot. Understanding I was 
a printer, she would have had me remain in that town 
and follow my business, being ignorant what stock 
was necessary to begin with. She was very hospitable, 
gave me a dinner of ox-cheek with great good-will, 
accepting only of a pot of ale in return ; and I thought 
myself fixed till Tuesday should come. However, 
walking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat 
came by, which I found was going toward Philadelphia 
with several people in her. They took me in, and as 
there was no wind we rowed all the way ; and about 
midnight, not having yet seen the city, some of the 
company were confident we must have passed it and 
would row no further ; the others knew not where we 
were, so we put toward the shore, got into a creek, 
landed near an old fence, with the rails of which we 
made a fire, the night being cold, in October, and there 
we remained till daylight. Then one of the company 
knew the place to be Cooper's Creek, a little above 
Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of 
the creek, and arrived there about eight or nine o'clock 



30 ^ UTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

on the Sunday morning and landed at Market Street 
wharf. 

I have been the more particular in this description 
of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into 
that city, that you may in your mind compare such 
unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made 
there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes 
coming round by sea. I was dirty, from my being so 
long in the boat. My pockets were stuffed out with 
shirts and stockings, and I knew no one nor where to 
look for lodging. Fatigued with walking, rowing, 
and the want of sleep, I was very hungry ; and my 
whole stock of cash consisted in a single dollar, and 
about a shilling in copper coin, which I gave to the 
boatmen for my passage. At first they refused it, on 
account of my having rowed ; but I insisted on their 
taking it. Man is sometimes more generous when he 
has little money than when he has plenty; perhaps to 
prevent his being thought to have but little. 

I walked tow^ard the top of the street, gazing about 
till near Market Street, when I met a boy with bread. 
I had often made a meal of dry bread, and inquiring 
where he had bought it, I went immediately to the 
baker's he directed me to. I asked for biscuits, mean- 
ing such as we had at Boston ; that sort, it seems, was 
not made at Philadelphia. I then asked for a three- 
penny loaf and was told they had none. Not knowing 
the different prices nor the names of the different sorts 
of bread, I told him to give me threepenny worth of 
any sort. He gave me accordingly three great puffy 
rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and 
having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll 
under each arm ^^^ gating the other, Thus I went up 



bbnjamw franklin. 81 

Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the 
door of Mr. Eead, my future wife's father ; when she, 
standing at the door, saw me, and» thought I made, as 
I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. 
Then I turned and went down Chestnut Street and 
part of Walnut Street, eating my roll all the w^ay ; 
and coming round found myself again at Market 
Street w^harf,- near the boat I came in, to which I went 
for a draught of the river water ; and being filled with 
one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and 
her child that came doWn the river in the boat with 
us and were vv^aiting to go further. 

Thus refreshed I walked again up the street, which 
by this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who 
were all walking the same way. I joined them, and 
thereby w^as led into the great meeting-house of the 
Quakers, near the market. I sat down among them, 
and after looking round a while and hearing nothing 
said, being very drowsy through labor and want of 
rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep and continued 
so till the meeting broke up, when some one was kind 
enough to rouse me. This, therefore, was the first 
house I \ya3 in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. 

I then walked down toward the river, and looking 
in the face of every one, I met a young Quaker man 
whose countenance pleased me, and accosting him re- 
quested he would tell me where a stranger could get a 
lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three 
Mariners. " Here," said he, " is a house where they 
receive strangers ; but it is not a reputable one. If thee 
wilt walk with me V\\ show thee a better one," and he 
conducted me to the Crooked Billet, in Water Street. 
There I got a dinner, and while I was eating several 



33 AUTOBtOenAPHY OF 

questions were asked me, as from my youth and ap- 
pearance 1 was suspected of being a runaway. 

After dinner, my host having shown me to a bed, I 
laid myself on it without undressing and slept till six 
in the evening, when I was called to supper. I went 
to bed again very early and slept very soundly till 
next morning. Then I dressed myself as neat as I 
could and went to Andrew Bradford, the printer's. I 
found in the shop the old man his father, whom I had 
seen at New York, and who, traveling on horseback, 
had got to Philadelphia before me. He introduced 
me to his son, who received me civilly, gave me a 
breakfast, but told me he did not at present want a 
hand, being lately supplied with one ; but there was 
another printer in town, lately set up, one Keimer, 
who perhaps might employ me ; if not, I should be 
welcome to lodge at his house, and he would give me 
a little work to do now and then till fuller business 
should offer. 

The old gentleman said he would go with me to the 
new printer ; and when we found him, " Neighbor," 
said Bradford, "I have brought to see you a young 
man of your business : perhaps you may want such a 
one." He asked me a few questions, put a composing- 
stick in my hand to see how I worked, and then said 
he would employ me soon, though he had just then 
nothing for me to do. And taking old Bradford, whom 
he had never seen before, to be one of the townspeople 
that had a good-will for him, entered into a con- 
versation on his present undertaking and prospects ; 
while Bradford, not discovering that he was the 
other printer's father, on Keimer's saying he expected 
soon to get the greatest part of the business in his own 



BENJAMlM FRANKLIN. 33 

hands, drew him on, by, artful questions and starting 
little doubts, to explain all his views, what influence 
he relied on, and in what manner he intended to pro- 
ceed. I, who stood by and heard all, saw immediately 
that one was a crafty old sophister and the other a 
true novice. Bradford left me with Keimer, who was 
greatly surprised when I told him who the old man 
was. 

The printing-house, I found, consisted of an old 
damaged press and a small, worn-out font of English 
types, which he was using himself, composing an 
" Elegy " on Aquila Eose, before mentioned ; an in- 
genious young man, of excellent character, much 
respected in the town, secretary to the Assembly, and 
a pretty poet. Keimer made verses too, but very 
indifferently. He could not be said to vwite them, for 
his method was to compose them in the types directly 
out of his head. There being no copy, but one pair of 
cases, and the " Elegy " probably requiring all the let- 
ter, no one could help him. I endeavored to put his 
press (which he had not yet used and of which he un- 
derstood nothing) into order to be worked with ; and 
promising to come and print off his " Elegy " as soon 
as he should have got it ready, I returned to Bradford's, 
who gave me a little job to do for the present, and 
there I lodged and dieted. A few da3^s after Keimer 
sent for me to print off the " Elegy." And now had 
got another pair of cases and a pamphlet to reprint, 
on which he set me to work. 

These two printers I found poorly qualified for their 
business. Bradford had not been bred to it and was 
verj^ illiterate, and Keimer, though something of a 
scholar, was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of 



34 AUTOBIOGEAPEY OP 

press-work. He had been one of the French prophets 
and could act their enthusiastic agitations. At this 
time he did not profess any particulur religion, but 
something of all on occasion ; was very ignorant of 
the world, and had, as I afterward found, a good deal 
of the knave in his composition. He did not lilce my 
lodging at Bradford's while I worked with him. He 
had a house, indeed, but without furniture, so he could 
not lodge me ; but he got me a lodging at Mr. Read's, 
before mentioned, who was the owner of his house ; 
and my chest of clothes being come by this time, I 
made rather a more respectable appearance in the ej^es 
of Miss Read than I had done when she first happened 
to see me eating my roll in the street. 

I began now to have some acquaintance among the 
young people of the town that were lovers of reading, 
with whom I spent my evenings very pleasa-ntly, and 
gained money by my industry and frugality. 1 lived 
very contented and forgot Boston as much as I could, 
and did not wish to be known where I resided except 
to my friend Collins, who was in the secret and kept 
it faithfully. At length, however, ah incident hap- 
pened that occasioned my return home much sooner 
than I had intended. I had a brother-in-law, Robert 
Holmes, master of a sloop that traded between Boston 
and Delaware. He being at Newcastle, forty miles 
below Philadelphia, and hearing of me, wrote me a 
letter mentioning the grief of my relations and friends 
in Boston at my abrupt departure, assuring me of 
their good-will to me, and that everything would be 
accommodated to my mind if I would return, to which 
he entreated me earnestly. I wrote an answer to his 
letter, thanked him for his advice, but stated my rea- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 35 

sons for quitting Boston so fully and in such a light as 
to convince him that I was not so much in the wrong 
as he had apprehended. 

Sir William Keith, governor of the province, was 
then at Newcastle, and Captain Holmes, happening to 
be in company with him when my letter came to hand, 
spoke to him of me and showed him the letter. The 
governor read it and seemed surprised when he was 
told my age. He said I appeared a young man of 
promising parts and therefore should be encouraged ; 
the printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones, and 
if I would set up there he made no doubt I should suc- 
ceed ; for his part he would procure me the public 
business and do me every other service in his power. 
This my brother-in-law Holmes afterward told me in 
Boston, but I knew as yet nothing of it ; when one 
dav Keimer and I, beino^ at work too^ether near the 
window, we saw the governor and another gentleman 
(who proved to be Colonel French, of J^ewcastle, in the 
province of Delaware), finely dressed, come directly 
across the street to our house, and heard them at the 
door. 

Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit to 
him ; but the governor inquired for me, came up, and 
with a condescension and politeness I had been quite 
unused to made him many compliments, desired to 
be acquainted with me, blamed me kindly for not hav- 
ing made myself known to him when I first came to 
the place, and would have me away with him to the 
tavern, where he was going with Colonel French to 
taste, as he said, some excellent Madeira. I was not a 
little surprised and Keimer stared with astonishment. 
I went, however, with the governor and Colonel French 



36 ^ UT0BI0GRAPH7 OP 

to a tavern at the corner of Third Street, and over the 
Madeira he proposed my setting up my business. He 
stated the probabilities of my success, and both he and 
Colonel French assured me I should have their 
interest and influence to obtain for me the public busi- 
ness of both governments. And as I expressed doubts 
that my father would assist me in it, Sir William said 
he would give me a letter to him, in which he would 
set forth the advantages, and he did not doubt he should 
determine him to comply. So it was concluded I should 
return to Boston by the first vessel, with the governor's 
letter, to my father. In the mean time it was to be 
kept a secret, and I went on working with Keimer as 
usual. The governor sent for me now and then to 
dine with him, which I considered a great honor, more 
particularly as he conversed with me in a most affable, 
familiar, and friendly manner. 

About the end of April, 1724, a little vessel offered 
for Boston. I took leave of Keimer as going to see 
my friends. The governor gave me an ample letter, 
saying many flattering things of me to my father and 
strongly recommending the project of my setting up 
at Philadelphia as a thing that would make my for- 
tune. We struck on a shoal in going down the bay 
and sprung a leak ; we had a blustering time at sea 
and were obliged to pump almost continually, at which 
I took my turn. We arrived safe, however, at Boston 
in about a fortnight. I had been absent seven months, 
and my friends had heard nothing of me, for my 
brother James was not yet returned and had not 
written about me. My unexpected appearance sur- 
prised the family ; all were, however, very glad to see 
me and made me welcome except my brother. I went 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Z^ 

to see him at his printing-house. I was better dressed 
than ever while in his service, having a genteel new 
suit from head to foot, a watch, and my pockets lined 
with near five pounds sterling in silver. He received 
me not very frankly, looked me all over, and turned 
to his work again. 

The journeymen were inquisitive where I had been, 
what sort of a country it was, and how I liked it. I 
praised it much and the happy life I led in it, express- 
ing strongly my intention of returning to it ; and one 
of them asking what kind of money we had there, I 
produced a handful of silver and spread it before them, 
which was a kind of raree-show they had not been used 
to, paper being the money of Boston. Then I took an 
opportunity of letting them see my watch ; and lastly 
(my brother still grum and sullen) gave them a dollar 
to drink and took my leave. This visit of mine of- 
fended him extremely. For when my mother some 
time after spoke to him of a reconciliation and of her 
wish to see us on good terms together, and that we 
might live for the future as brothers, he said I had 
insulted him in such a manner before his people that 
he could never forget or forgive it. In this, however, 
he was mistaken. 

My father received the governor's letter with some 
surprise, but said little of it to me for some time. 
Captain Holmes returning, he showed it to him and 
asked him if he knew Sir William Keith, and what 
kind of a man he was ; adding that he must be of 
small discretion to think of setting a youth up in busi- 
ness who wanted three years to arrive at man's estate. 
Holmes said what' he could in favor of the project, but 
my father was decidedly against it and at last gave a 



38 AUTOBIOGRAPBT OF 

flat denial. He wrote a civil letter to Sir William, 
thanking him for the patronage he had so kindly 
offered me, and declined to assist me as yet in. setting 
u}3, I being, in his opinion, too young to be trusted 
with the management of an undertaking so important, 
and for which the preparation required a considerable 
expenditure. 

My old companion Collins, who was a clerk in the 
post-office, pleased with the account I gave him of my 
new country, determined to go thither also ; and while 
I waited for my father's determination, he set out be- 
fore me by land to Ehode Island, leaving his books, 
which were a pretty collection in mathematics and 
natural philosophy, to come with mine and me to New 
York, where he proposed to wait tor me. 

My father, though he did not approve Sir William's 
proposition, was yet pleased that I had been able to 
obtain so advantageous a character from a person of 
such note where I had resided, and that I had been so 
industrious and careful as to equip myself so hand- 
somely in so short a time ; therefore, seeing no prospect 
of an accommodation between my brother and me, he 
gave his consent to my returning again to Philadelphia, 
advised me to behave respectfully to the people there, 
endearor to obtain the general esteem and avoid 
lampooning and libeling, to which he thought I had 
too much inclination ; telling me that by steady 
industry and prudent parsimony I might save enough 
by the time I was twenty-one to set me up, and that if 
1 came near the matter he would help me out with the 
rest. This was all I could obtain, except some small 
gifts as tokens of his and my mother's love, when I 
embarked again for New York, now with their appro- 
bation and their blessing. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39 

The sloop putting in at I^ewport, Ehode Island, I 
visited my brother John, who had been married and 
settled there some years. He received me very 
aflfectionately, for he always loVed me. A friend of 
his, one Vernon, having some money due to him in 
Pennsylvania, about thirty-five pounds currency, 
desired I would recover it for him and keep it till I 
had his directions what to employ it in. Accordingly he 
gave me an order to receive it. This business after- 
ward occasioned me a good deal of uneasiness. 

At Newport we took in a number of passengers, 
among whom were two young women traveling 
together and a sensible, matron-like Quaker lady, with 
her servants. I had shown an obliging disposition to 
render her some little services, which probably im- 
pressed her with sentiments of good-will toward me, for 
when she witnessed the daily growing familiarity 
between the young women and myself, which they 
appeared to encourage, she took me aside and said : 
"Young man, lam concerned for thee, as thou hast no 
friend with thee and seems not to know much of the 
world or of the snares youth is exposed to. Depend upon 
it, these are very bad women : I can see it by all their 
actions ; and if thee art not upon thy guard they will 
draw thee into some danger; they are strangers to 
thee, and I advise thee, in a friendly concern for thy 
welfare, to have no acquaintance with them." As 1 
seemed at first not to think so ill of them as she did, 
she mentioned some things she had observed and heard 
that had escaped my notice, but now convinced me she 
was right. I thanked her for her kind advice and 
promised to follow it. When we arrived at New 
York they told me where they lived and invited me tQ 



40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF , 

come and see them, but I avoided it ; and it was well 
I did, for the next day the captain missed a silver 
spoon and some other things that had been taken out 
of his cabin, and knowing that these were a couple of 
strumpets, he got a warrant to search their lodgings, 
found the stolen goods, and had the thieves punished. 
So though we had escaped a sunken rock, which we 
scraped upon in the passage, I thought this escape of 
rather more importance to me. 

At New York I found my friend Collins, who had 
arrived there some time before me. We had been 
intimate from children and had read the same books 
together, but he had the advantage of more time for 
reading and studying and a wonderful genius for 
mathematical learning, in which he far outstripped 
me. While 1 lived in Boston, most of my hours of 
leisure for conversation were spent with him, and he 
continued a sober as well as industrious lad, was much 
respected for his learning by several of the clergy and 
other gentlemen, and seemed to promise making a 
good figure in life. But during my absence he had 
acquired a habit of drinking brandy, and I found by 
his own account, as well as that of others, that he had 
been drunk every day since his arrival at New York, 
and behaved himself in a very extravagant manner. 
He had gamed, too, and lost his money, so that I was 
obliged to discharge his lodgings and defray his 
expenses on the road and at Philadelphia, which proved 
a great burden to me. 

The then Governor of New York, Burnet (son of 
Bishop Burnet), hearing from the captain that one of 
the passengers had a great many books on board, 
desired him to bring me to see him. I waited on him, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41 

and should have taken Collins with me had he been 
sober. The governor received me with great civility, 
showed me his library, which was a considerable one, 
and we had a good deal of conversation relative to 
books and authors. This was the second governor 
who had done me the honor to take notice of me, and 
for a poor boy like me it was very pleasing. 

We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received in the 
way Veruon's money, without which we could hardly 
have finished our journey. Collins wished to be 
employed in some counting-house ; but whether they 
discovered his dram-drinking by his breath or by his 
behavior, though he had some recommendations he 
met with no success in any application, and continued 
lodging and boarding at the same house with me, and 
at my expense. Knowing I had that money of 
Yernon's he was continually borrowing of me, still 
promising repayment as soon as he should be in 
business. At length he had got so much of it that I 
was distressed to think what I should do in case of 
being called on to remit it. 

His drinking continued, about which we sometimes 
quarreled, for when a little intoxicated he was very 
irritable. Once in a boat on the Delaware, with some 
other young men, he refused to row in his turn, "I 
will be rowed home," said he. " We will not row 
you," said I. " You must," said he, " or stay all night 
on the water, just as you please." The others said, 
" Let us row ; what signifies it ?" But, my mind being 
soured with his other conduct, I continued to refuse. 
So he swore he would make me row or throw me over- 
board ; and coming along stepping on the thwarts 
toward me, when he came up and struck at me, I 



42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

clapped my head under his thighs and, rising, pitched 
him headforemost into the river. 1 knew he was a 
good swimmer and so was under little concern about 
him ; but before he could get round to lay hold of the 
boat we had with a few strokes pulled her out of his 
reach, and whenever he drew near the boat we asked 
him if he would row, striking a few strokes to slide 
her away from him. He was ready to stifle with vex- 
ation and obstinately would not promise to row. Find- 
ing him at last beginning to tire, we drew him into the 
boat and brought him home dripping wet. We hardly 
exchanged a civil word after this adventure. At 
length a West India captain, who had a commission 
to procure a preceptor for the sons of a gentleman at 
Barbadoes, met with him and proposed to carry him 
thither to fill that situation. He accepted, and promised 
to remit me what he owed me out of the first money 
he should receive, but I never heard of him after. 

The violation of my trust respecting Vernon's money 
was one of the first great errata of my life ; and this 
showed that my father was not much out in his judg- 
ment when he considered me as too young to manage 
business. But Sir William, on reading his letter, said 
he was too prudent — that there was a great difference 
in persons, and discretion did not always accompany 
years, nor was youth always without it. " But since 
he will not set you up I will do it myself. Give me 
an inventory of the things necessary to be had from 
England and I will send for ttiem. You shall repay 
me when you are able. I am resolved to have a good 
printer here, and I am sure you must succeed." This 
was spoken with such an appearance of cordiality that 
I had not the least doubt of his meaning what he said 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 43 

I had hitherto kept the proposition of my setting up a 
secret in Philadelphia, and I still kept it. Had it been 
known that I depended on the governor, probably 
some friend that knew him better would have advised 
me not to rely on him, as I afterward heard it as his 
known character to be liberal of promises which he 
never meant to keep. Yet, unsolicited as he was by 
me, how could I think his generous offers insincere ? 
I believed him one of the best men in the world. 

I presented him an inventory of a little printing- 
house, amounting, by my computation, to about one 
hundred pounds sterling. He liked it, but asked me if 
my being on the spot in Eugland to choose the types 
and see that everything was good of the kind might 
not be of some advantage. " Then," said he, " when 
there you may make acquaintance and establish cor- 
respondences in the book-selling and stationery line." 
I agreed that this might be advantageous. " Then," 
said he, " get yourself ready to go by the Annis," 
which was the annual ship, and the only one, at that 
time usually passing between London and Philadelphia. 
But as it would be some months before the Annis 
sailed I continued working with Keimer, fretting ex- 
tremely about the money Collins had got from me 
and in great apprehensions of being called upon for it 
by Vernon ; this, however, did not happen for some 
years after. 

I believe I have omitted mentioning that in my first 
voyage from Boston to Philadelphia, being becalmed 
off Block Island, our crew employed themselves in 
catching cod, and. hauled up a great number. Till 
then I had stuck to my resolution to eat nothing that 
had had life ; and on this occasion I considered, accord- 



44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ing to my master Try on, the taking of every fish as a 
kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had 
done or could do us any injury that might justify this 
massacre. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had 
been formerly a great lover of fish, and when it came 
out of the frying-pan it smelled admirably well. I 
balanced some time between principle and inclination, 
till, recollecting that when the fish were opened I saw 
smaller fish taken out of their stomachs, then, thought 
I, " If you eat one another I don't see why we may not 
eat you ;" so I dined upon cod very heartily, and have 
since continued to eat as other people, returning only 
now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So 
convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creaturej 
since it enables one to find or make a reason for every- 
thing one has a mind to do, 

Keimer and I lived on a pretty good familiar footing 
and agreed tolerably well, for he suspected nothing of 
my setting up. He retained a great deal of his old 
enthusiasm and loved argumentation; we therefore 
had many disputations. I used to work him so with 
with my Socratic method, and had trepanned him so 
often b}^ questions apparently so distant from any 
point we had in hand, yet by degrees leading to the 
point and bringing him into diflQculties and contra- 
dictions, that at last he grew ridiculously cautious, and 
would hardly answer me the most common question 
without asking first, " What do you intend to infer 
from that V* However, it gave him so high an opinion 
of my abilities in the confuting way that he seriously 
proposed my being his colleague in a project he had of 
setting up a new sect. He was to preach the doctrines 
and I was to confound all opponents. When he camq 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 45 

to explain with me upon the doctrines I found several 
conundrums, which I objected to unless I might have 
my way a little too and introduce some of mine. 

Keimer v/ore his beard at full length, because some- 
where in the Mosaic law it is said, " Thou shalt not 
mar the corners of thy heardjP He likewise kept the 
seventh day, Sabbath; and these two points were 
essential with him. I disliked both, but agreed to them 
on condition of his adopting the doctrine of not using 
animal food. " I doubt," said he, " my constitution 
will not bear it." I assured him it would and that he 
would be the better for it. He was usually a great 
eater, and I wished to give myself some diversion in 
. half -starving him. He consented to try the practice if I 
would keep him company. I did so, and we held it for 
three months. Our provisions were purchased, cooked, 
and brought to us regularly by a woman in the neigh- 
borhood, who had from me a list of forty dishes which 
she prepared for us at different times, in which there 
entered neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. This whim suited 
me the better at this time from the cheapness of it, not 
costing us above eighteen pence sterling each per week. 
I have since kept several Lents most strictly, leaving 
the common diet for that, and that for the common, 
abruptly, without the least inconvenience ; so that I 
think there is little in the advice of making those 
changes by easy gradations. I went on pleasantly, but 
poor Keimer suffered grievously, grew tired of the 
project, longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and ordered 
a. roast pig. He invited me and two women friends to 
dine with him, but, it being brought too "soon upon 
table, he could not resist the temptation and ate the 
whole before we came. 



46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

I had made some courtship during this time to Miss 
Read. I had a great respect and affection for her, 
and had some reasons to believe she had the same for 
me ; but as I was about to take a long voyage and we 
were both very young, only a little above eighteen, it 
was thought most prudent by her mother to prevent 
our going too far at present, as a marriage, if it were 
to take place, would be more convenient after my re 
turn, when I should be, as I hoped, set up in my busi 
ness. Perhaps, too, she thought my expectations not 
so well founded as I imagined them to be. 

My chief acquaintances at this time were Charles 
Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James Ealph, all lovers 
of reading. The two first were clerks to an eminent 
scrivener or conveyancer in the town, Charles Brock- 
den. The other was a clerk to a merchant. Watson 
was a pious, sensible young man, of great integrity ; 
the others rather more lax in their principles of religion, 
particularly Ealph, who, as well as Collins, had been 
unsettled by me, for which they both made me suffer. 
Osborne was sensible, candid, frank, sincere, and 
affectionate to his friends, but in literary matters too 
fond of criticism. Ealph was ingenious, genteel in his 
manners, and extremely eloquent. I think I never 
knew a prettier talker. Both were great admirers of 
poetry and began to try their hands in little pieceSc 
Many pleasant walks we have had together on Sun- 
days in the woods on the banks of the Schuylkill, 
where we read to one another and conferred on what 
we had read. 

Ealph was inclined to give himself up entirely to 
poetry, not doubting that he might make great pro- 
ficiency in it and even make his fortune by it. He 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 4t 

pretended that the greatest poets must, when they 
first began to write, have committed as many faults 
as he did. Osborne endeavored to dissuade him, 
assured him he had no genius for poetry, and ad- 
vised him to think of nothing^ bevond the business he 
was bred to ; that in the mercantile way, though he 
had no stock, he might by his diligence and punctual- 
ity recommend himself to employment as a factor and 
in time acquire wherewith to trade on his own account. 
I approved for my part the amusing one's self with 
poetry now and then, so far as to improve one's lan- 
guage, but no further. 

On this it was proposed that we should each of us, 
at our next meeting, produce a piece of our own com- 
posing, in order to improve by our mutual observa- 
tions, criticisms, and corrections. As language and 
expression were what we had in view, we excluded all 
considerations of invention by agreeing that the task 
should be a version of the eighteenth psalm, which 
describes the descent of a Deity. When the time of 
our meeting drew nigh, Ralph called on me first and 
let me know his piece was ready. I told him I had 
been busy, and having little inclination had done noth- 
ng. He then showed me his piece for my opinion, 
irid I much approved it, as it appeared to me to have 
great merit. "Now," said he, " Osborne never will 
allow the least merit in an v thins: of mine, but makes 
a thousand criticisms out of mere envy. He is not so 
jealous of you. I wish, therefore, you would take this 
piece and produce it as yours. I will pretend not to 
have had time and so produce nothing. We shall then 
hear what he will say to it." It w^as agreed, and I 
immediately transcribed it, that it might appear in my 
own hand. 



48 ^ tlTOBIOGRAPHT OF 

We met. Watson's performance was read ; there were 
some beauties in it, but many defects. Osborne's was 
read ; it was much better. Ealph did it justice ; re- 
marked some faults, but applauded the beauties. He 
himself had nothing to produce. I was backward, 
seemed desirous of beiiig excused, had not had suflBl- 
cient time to correct, etc. But no excuse could be ad- 
mitted ; produce 1 must. It was read and repeated. 
Watson and Osborne gave up the contest and joined in 
applauding it. Ralph only made some criticisms and 
proposed some amendments ; but I defended my text. 
Osborne was severe against Ralph and told me he was 
no better able to criticise than compose verses. As 
these two were returning home, Osborne expressed 
himself still more strongly in favor of what he thought 
my production, having before refrained, as he said, lest 
I should think he meant to flatter me. ^' But who 
would have imagined," said he, " that Franklin Avas 
capable of such a performance ; such painting, such 
force, such fire ! He has even improved on the original. 
In common conversation he seems to have no choice of 
words ; he hesitates and blunders, and yet, good God, 
how he writes !" When we next met, Ralph discov- 
ered the trick we had played and Osborne was laughed 
at. 

This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution of be- 
coming a poet. I did all I could to persuade him from 
it, but he continued scribbling verses till Pope cured 
him. He became, however, a pretty good prose-writer. 
More of him hereafter. But as I may not have occa- 
sion to mention the other two, I shall just remark here 
that Watson died in my arms a few years after, much 
lamented, being the best of our set. Osborne went to 



ISENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 49 

the West Indies, where he became an eminent lawyer 
and made money, but died young. He and I had 
made a serious agreement that the one who happened 
first to die should, if possible, make a friendly visit to 
the other and acquaint him how he found things in 
that separate state. But he never fulfilled his promise. 

The governor, seeming to like my company, had me 
frequently at his house, and his setting me up was 
always mentioned as a fixed thing. I was to take 
with me letters recommendatory to a number of his 
friends, besides the letter of credit to furnish me with 
the necessary money for purchasing the press, types, 
paper, etc. For these letters I was appointed to call 
at different times, when they were to be ready ; but a 
future time was still named. Thus we went on till 
the ship — whose departure, too, had been several times 
postponed — was on the point of sailing. Then when I 
called to take my leave and receive the letters, his sec- 
retary, Dr. Baird, came out to me and said the gov- 
ernor was extremely busy in writing, but would be 
down at Newcastle before the ship, and then the letters 
would be delivered to me. 

Ralph, though married, and having one child, had 
Icter mined to accompany me in this voyage. It was 
thought he intended to establish a correspondence and 
obtain goods to sell on commission ; but I found after 
that having some cause of discontent with his wife's 
relations, he proposed to leave her on their hands and 
never return to America. Havin^: taken leave of mv 
friends and exchanged promises with Miss Read, I 
quitted Philadelphia in the ship, which anchored at 
Newcastle. The governor was there, but when I went 
to his lodging his secretary came to me from him with, 



50 ^ tJlVBIOGBAPnY OP 

expressions of the greatest regret that he could not 
then see me, being engaged in business of the utmost 
importance, but that he would send the letters to me on 
board, wishing me heartily a good voyage and a 
speedy return, etc, I returned on board a little puzzled, 
but still not doubting. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 61 



CHAPTER III. 

Mk. ANt)REw Hamilton, a celebrated lawyer of 
Philadelphia, had taken his passage in the same ship 
for himself and son, with Mt. Denham, a Quaker 
merchant, and Messrs. Onia4n and Russel, masters of 
an iron works in Maryland, who had engaged the 
great cabin ; so that Ealph and I were forced to take 
up with a berth in the steerage, and none on board 
knowing us, were considered as ordinary persons. But 
Mr. Hamilton and his son (it was James, since governor) 
returned from Newcastle to Philadelphia, the father 
being recalled by a great fee to plead for a seized ship. 
And just before we sailed Colonel French coming on 
board and showing me great respect I was more taken 
notice of, and, with my friend Ealph, invited by the 
other gentlemen to come into the cabin, there being 
now room. Accordingly we removed thither. 

Understanding that Colonel French had brought on 
board the governor's dispatches, I asked the captain 
for those letters that were to be under mv care. He 
said all were put into the bag together and he could 
not then come at them, but before we landed in Eng- 
land 1 should have an opportunity of picking 
them out ; so I was satisfied for the present and 
We proceeded on our voyage. We had. a sociable 
company in the cabin and lived uncommonly well, 
having the addition of all Mr, Hamilton's stores^^ whQ 



6S AtfTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

had laid in plentifully. In this passage Mr. Denham 
contracted a friendship foi: me that continued during 
his life. The voyage was otherwise not a pleasant 
one, as we had a great deal of bad weather. 

When we came into the Channel, the captain kept 
his word with me and gave me an opportunity of 
examining the bag for the governor's letters. I found 
some upon which my name was put as under my care. 
I picked out six or seven that by the handwriting I 
thought might be the promised letters, especially as 
one of them was addressed to Baskett, the king's 
printer, and another to some stationer. We arrived 
in London the 24:th December, 1724. I waited upon 
the stationer, who came first in my way, delivering 
the letter as from Governor Keith. ^' I don't know 
such a person," said he ; but opening the letter, " Oh, 
this is from Riddlesden. I have lately found him to 
be a complete rascal, and I will have nothing to do 
with him nor receive any letters from him." So 
putting the letter into my hand, he turned on his 
heel and left me to serve some customer. I was 
surprised to find these were not the governor's letters, 
and after recollecting and comparing circumstances, I 
began to doubt his sincerity. I found my friend 
Denham and opened the whole affair to him. He let 
me into Keith's character, told me there was not the 
least probability that he had written any letters for 
me ; that no one who knew him had the smallest 
dependence on him ; and he laughed at the idea of 
the governor's giving me a letter of credit, having, as he 
said, no credit to give. On my expressing some 
concern about what I should do, he advised me to 
endeavor getting some employment in the way of my 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 53 

business. " Among the printers here," said he, " you 
will improve yourself, and when you return to Amer- 
ica you will set up to greater adV'antage." 

We both of us happened to know, as well as the 
stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very 
knave. He had half-ruined Miss Read's father by 
persuading him to be bound for him. By this letter 
it appeared there was a secret scheme on foot to the 
prejudice of Mr. Hamilton (supposed to be then 
coming over with us) ; that Keith was concerned in it 
with Eiddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of 
Hamilton's, thought he ought to be acquainted with 
it ; so when he arrived in England, which was soon 
after, partly from resentment and ill-will to Keith and 
Eiddlesden and partly from good-will to him, I waited 
on him and gave him the letter. He thanked me 
cordially, the information being of importance to him, 
and from that time he became my friend, greatly to 
my advantage afterward on many occasions. 

But what shall we think of a governor playing such 
pitiful tricks and imposing so grossly on a poor 
ignorant boy ! It was a habit he had acquired. He 
wished to please everybody, and having little to give 
he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, 
sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a good gov- 
ernor for the people, though not for his constituents, 
the proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes dis- 
regarded. Several of our best laws were of his plan- 
ning and passed during his administration. 

Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We 
took lodgings together in Little Britain at three 
shillings and sixpence a week, as much as we could 
then afford. He found some relations, but they werq 



54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

poor and unable to assist him. He now let me know 
his intentions of remaining in London and that he 
never meant to return to Philadelphia. He had 
brought no money with him, the whole he could 
muster having been expended in paying his passage. 
I had fifteen pistoles, so he borrowed occasionally of 
me to subsist while he was looking out for business. 
He first endeavored to get into the play-house, believ- 
ing himself qualified for an actor ; but Wilkes,"^ to 
whom he applied, advised him candidly not to think 
of that employment, as it was impossible he should 
succeed in it. Then he proposed to Roberts, a 
publisher in Paternoster Row^ to write for him a 
weekly paper like the Sjpectator^ on certain conditions, 
which Roberts did not approve. Then he endeavored 
to get employment as a hackney writer, to copy for 
the stationers and lawyers about the Temple, but 
could not find a vacancy. 

For myself, I immediately got into work at Palmer's, 
a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close, where 
I continued near a year. I was pretty diligent, but I 
spent with Ralph a good deal of my earnings at plays 
and public amusements. We had nearly consumed all 
m}^ pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to 
mouth. He seemed quite to have forgotten his wife 
and child, and I by degrees my engagements with Miss 
Read, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, 
and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to 
return. This was another of the great errata of my 
life, which I could wish to correct if I were to live it 
over again. In fact, by our expenses I was constantly 
kept unable to pay my passage. 

w — . ■ r 11.11 I < 

*A comedian of eminence. 



BENJAMm FBANKLIF. 55 

At Palmer's I was employed in composing for the 
second edition of Wollaston's " Religion of Nature.'^ 
Some of tiis reasonings not appearing to me well 
founded, I wrote a little metaphysical piece in which 
I made remarks on them. It was entitled "A Dis- 
sertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and 
Pain." I inscribed it to my friend Ralph ; I printed 
a small number. It occasioned my being more con- 
sidered by Mr. Palmer as a young man of some 
ingenuity, though he seriously expostulated with me 
upon the principles of my pamphlet, which to him ap- 
peared abominable. My printing this pamphlet was 
another erratum. While I lodged in Little Britain I 
made an acquaintance Avith one Wilcox, a bookseller, 
whose shop was next door. He had an immense 
collection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries 
were not then in use, but we agreeed that on certain 
reasonable terms, which I now have forgotten, I might 
take, read, and return any of his books. This I 
esteemed a great advantage, and I made as much use 
of it as I could. 

My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands 
of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book entitled 
" The Infallibility of Human Judgment," it occasioned 
an acquaintance between us. He took great notice of 
me, called on me often to converse on those subjects, 

carried me to the Horns, a pale-ale-house in Lane, 

Cheapside, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, 
author of the " Fable of the Bees," who had a club 
there, of which he was the soul ; being a most facetious, 
entertaining companion. Lyons too introduced me to 
Dr. Pemberton, at Batson's coffee-house, who promised 
to give me an opportunity, some time or other, of 



06 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extremely 
desirous ; but this never happened. 

I had brought over a few curiosities, among which 
the principal w^as a purse made of the asbestos^ which 
purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to 
see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury 
Square, showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded 
me to add that to the number ; for which he paid me 
handsomely. 

In our house lodged a young woman, a milliner, 
who I think had a shop in the Cloisters. She had 
been genteelly bred, was sensible, lively, and of a most 
pleasing conversation. Ealph read plays to her in the 
evenings, they grew intimate, she took another lodg- 
ing, and he followed her. They lived together some 
time ; but he being still out of business and her income 
not sufficient to maintain them with her child, he took 
a resolution of going to London to try for a country 
school, which he thought himself well qualified to un- 
dertake, as he wrote an excellent hand and was a 
master of arithmetic and accounts. This, however, he 
deemed a business below him, and confident of future 
better fortune, when he should be unwilling to have it 
known that he was once so meanly employed, he 
changed his name and did me the honor to assume 
mine ; for I soon after had a letter from him, acquaint- 
ing me that he was settled in a small village (in Berk- 
shire, 1 think it was, where he taught reading and 
writing to ten or a dozen boys at sixpence each per 
week), recommending Mrs. T to my care and de- 
siring me to write to him, directing for Mr. FromMin^ 
schoolmaster, at such a place. 

He continued to write to me frequently, sending me 



BENJAMIN FBANKLm. 57 

large specimens of an epic poem which he was then 
composing, and desiring my remarks and corrections. 
These I gave him from time to time, but endeavored 
rather to discourage his proceeding. One of Young's 
Satires was then just published. I copied and sent 
him a great part of it, which set in a strong light the 
folly of pursuing the Muses. All was in vain ; sheets 
of the poem continued to come by every post. In the 
mean time, Mrs. T~ — ^ having on his account lost her 
friends and business, was often in distresses, and used 
to send for me and borrow what money I could spare 
to help to alleviate them. I grew fond of her company, 
and being at that time under no religious restraint, 
and taking advantage of my importance to her, I at- 
tempted to take some liberties with her (another 
erratum\ which she repulsed, with a proper degree of 
resentment. She wrote to Ralph and acquainted him 
with my conduct ; this occasioned a breach between 
us ; and when he returned to London he let me know 
he considered all the obligations he had been under to 
me as annulled ; from which I concluded I was never to 
expect his repaying the money I had lent him or that 
I had advanced for him. This, however, was of little 
consequence, as he was totally unable, and by the loss 
of his friendship I found myself relieved from a heavy 
burden. I now began to think of getting a little be- 
forehand, and, expecting better employment, I left 
Palmer's to work at Watt's, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
a still greater printing-house. Here I continued all 
the rest of my stay in London. 

At my first admission into the printing-house I took 
to working at press, imagining I felt a want of bodily 
exercise I had been used to in America, where press- 



58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

work is mixed with the composing. I drank only 
water; the other workmen; near fifty in number, were 
great drinkers of beer. On occasion I carried up and 
down stairs a large form of type in each hand, when 
others carried but one in both hands. They wondered 
to see, from this and several instances, that the Water 
American^ as they called me, was stronger than them 
selves, who drank strong beer ! We had an ale-house 
boy, who attended always in the house to supply tbu 
w^orkmen. My companion at the press drank every 
day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with 
his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and 
dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about 
six o'clock, and another pint when he had done his 
day's work. I thought it a detestable custom ; but it was 
necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he 
might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince 
him that the bodily strength afforded by beer 
could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the 
barley dissolved in the water of which it was made ; 
that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread ; 
and therefore if he could eat that with a pint of water 
it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. 
He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings 
to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that 
vile liquor, an expense I was free from. And thus 
these poor devils keep themselves always under. 

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the 
composing-room, I left the press-room ; a new Men 
Venn for drink, being five shillings, was demanded of 
me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, as 
I had paid one to the pressman; the master thought 
so too and forbade my paying it, I stood out two or 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 69 

three weeks, was accordingly considered as an excom- 
municate, and had so many little pieces of private 
malice practiced on me, by mixing my sorts, transpos- 
ing and breaking my matter, etc., etc, if ever I stepped 
out of the room, and all ascribed to the chapel ghost^ 
which they said ever haunted those not regularly ad- 
mitted, that notwithstanding the master's protection, 
I found myself obliged to comply and pay the money; 
convinced of the folly of being on ill-terms with those 
one is to live with continually. 

I was now on a fair footing with them and soon ac- 
quired considerable influence. I proposed some reason- 
able alterations in the chapel^ laws and carried them 
against all opposition. From my example a great 
many of them left their muddling breakfast of beer, 
bread, and cheese, finding they could with me be sup- 
plied from a neighboring house with a large porringer 
of hot-water gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbled 
with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price of a 
pint of beer, viz., three halfpence. This was a more 
comfortable as well as a cheaper breakfast and kept 
their heads clearer. Those who continued sotting with 
their beer all day were often, by not pajung, out of 
credit at the ale-house, and used to make interest with 
me to get beer ; their lights as they phrased it, heing 
out. I watched the pay-table on Saturday night and 
collected what I stood engaged for them, having to 
pay sometimes near thirty shillings a week on their 
accounts. This, and my being estimated a pretty good 
riggite^ that is, a jocular verbal satirist, supported my 
consequence in the society. My constant attendance 

'^ A printing-house is called a chapel by the workmeu. 



60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

(I never making a St. Monday) recommended me to 
the master, and my uncommon quickness at composing 
occasioned my being put upon work of dispatch, which 
was generally better paid. So I went on now very 
agreeably. 

My lodgings in Little Britain being too remote, 1 
found another in Duke Street, opposite to the Romish 
chapel. It was up three pair of stairs backward, at 
an Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house : 
she had a daughter, and a maid-servant, and a journey- 
man who attended the warehouse, but lodged abroad. 
After sending to inquire my character at the house 
where I last lodged, she agreed to take me in at the 
same rate — three shillings and sixpence a week; 
cheaper, as she said, from the protection she expected 
in having a man to lodge in the house. She was a 
widow, an elderly woman ; had been bred a Protestant, 
being a clergyman's daughter, but was converted to 
the Catholic religion by her husband, whose memory 
she much revered ; had lived much among people of 
distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of them as 
far back as the time of Charles II. She was lame in 
her knees with the gout and therefore seldom stirred 
out of her room, so sometimes wanted company ; and 
hers was so highly amusing to me that I was sure to 
spend an evening with her whenever she desired it. 
Our supper was only half an anchovy each on a very 
little slice of bread and butter and half a pint of ale 
between us ; but the entertainment was in her conver- 
sation. My always keeping good hours and giving 
little trouble in the family made her unwilling to part 
with me, so that when I talked of a lodging I had 
beard of, nearer my businessj for two shillings a week 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIK 61 

(which, intent as I was on saving money, made some 
difference), she bid me not think of it, for she would 
abate me two shillings a week for'the future ; so I re- 
mained with her at one shilling and sixpence as long 
as I stayed in London. 

In the garret of her house there lived a maiden lady 
of seventy, in the most retired manner, of whom my 
landlady gave me this account : that she was a Koman 
Catholic ; had been sent abroad when young and 
lodged in a nunnery, with an intent of becoming a nun; 
but, the country not agreeing with her, she returned 
to England, where, there being no nunnery, she had 
vowed to lead the life of a nun as near as might be 
done in those circumstances. Accordingly she had 
given all her estate to charitable purposes, reserving 
only twelve pounds a year to live on ; and out of this 
sum she still gave a part in charity, living herself on 
water-gruel only and using no fire but to boil it. She 
had lived many years in that garret, being permitted 
to remain there gratis by successive Catholic tenants 
of the house below, as they deemed it a blessing to 
have her there. A priest visited her to confess her 
every day. " From this I asked her," said my land- 
lady, "how she, as she lived, could possibly find so 
much employment for a confessor." " Oh 1" said she, 
" it is impossible to avoid vain thoughts^ I was per- 
mitted once to visit her. She was cheerful and polite 
and conversed pleasantly. The room was clean, but 
had no other furniture than a mattress, a table with a 
crucifix and a book, a stool which she gave me to sit 
on, and a picture .over the chimney of St. Veronica 
displaying her handkerchief, with the miraculous 
figure of Christ's bleeding face on it, which she ex- 
plained to me with great seriousness. 



62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

She looked pale, but was never sick ; and I give it 
as another instance on how small an income life and 
health may be supported. 

At Watt's printing-house I contracted an acquaint- 
ance with an ingenious young man, one Wygate, who, 
having wealthy relations, had been better educated 
than most printers; was a tolerable Latinist, spoke 
French, and loved reading. I taught him and a friend 
of his to swim at twice going into the river, and they 
soon became good swimmers. They introduced me to 
some gentlemen from the country, who went to 
Chelsea by water to see the college and Don Saltero's 
curiosities. In our return at the request of the com- 
pany, whose curiosity Wygate had excited, I stripped 
and leaped into the river and swam from near Chelsea 
to Blackfriars ; performing in the way many feats of 
activity, both upon and under the water, and surprised 
and pleased those to whom they were novelties. 

I had from a child been delighted with this exercise, 
had studied and practiced Thevenot's motions and 
positions and added some of my own, aiming at the 
graceful and easy as well as the useful. All these I 
took this occasion of exhibiting to the company, and 
was much flattered by their admiration ; and Wygate, 
who was desirous of becoming a master, grew more 
and more attached to me on that account, as well as 
from the similarit}'- of our studies. He at length 
proposed to me traveling all over Europe together, sup- 
porting ourselves everywhere by working at our 
business. I was once inclined to it, but mentioning it 
to my good friend Mr. Denham, with whom I often 
spent an hour when I had leisure, he dissuaded me 
from it, advising me to think only of returning to 
Pennsylvania, wt^ich he was now about to do. 



SBKJAMm FRANKLm. 63 

I must record one trait of this good man's character. 
He had formerly been in business at Bristol, but 
failed in debt to a number of people, compounded, and 
went to America. There, by a close application to 
business as a merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune 
in a few years. Returning to England in the ship 
with me, he invited his old creditors to an entertain- 
ment, at which he thanked them for the easy com- 
position the}^ had favored him with ; and when they 
expected nothing but the treat, every man, at the first 
remove, found under his plate an order on a banker 
for the amount of the unpaid remainder, with interest. 

He now told me he was about to return to Philadel- 
phia, and should carry over a great quantity of goods 
in order to open a store there. He proposed to take 
me over as his clerk, to keep his books — in which he 
would instruct me — copy his letters, and attend the 
store. He added that as soon as I should be acquainted 
with mercantile business he would promote me by 
sending me with a cargo of flour and bread to the 
West Indies, and procure me commissions from others 
which would be profitable, and if I managed well 
would establish me handsomely. The thing pleased 
me, for I was grown tired of London, remembered 
with pleasure the happy months I had spent in Penn- 
sylvania, and wished again to see it. Therefore I 
immediately agreed, on the terms of fifty pounds a 
year, Pennsylvania money ; less than my then present 
gettings as a compositor, but afi'ording a better prospect. 

I now took leave of printing, as I thought, forever, 
and was daily employed in my new business, going 
about with Mr. Denham among the tradesmen to 
purchase various articles and see them packed up, 



CA AUTOBIOORAPHT OF 

delivering messages, calling upon workmen to dispatch, 
etc. ; and when all was on board I had a few days' 
leisure. On one of these days I was, to my surprise, 
sent for by a great man I knew only by name. Sir 
William Wyndham, and I waited upon him. He had 
heard, by some means or other, of my swimming from 
Chelsea to Blackfriars and of my teaching Wygate 
and another young man to swim in a few hours. He 
had two sons about to set out on their travels ; he 
wished to have them first taught swimming, and 
proposed to gratify me handsomely if I would teach 
them. They were not yet come to town and my stay 
was uncertain, so I could not undertake it. But from 
the incident I thought it likely that if I were to remain 
in England and open a swimming-school I might get a 
good deal of money ; and it struck me so strongly that 
had the overture been made me sooner, probably I 
should not so soon have returned to America. Many 
years after, you and I had something of more impor- 
tance to do with one of these sons of Sir William 
Wyndham, become Earl of Egremont, which I shall 
mention in its place. 

Thus I passed about eighteen months in London ; 
most part of the time I worked hard at my business 
and spent but little upon myself, except in seeing plays 
and in books. My friend Ealph had kept me poor. 
He owed me about twenty -seven pounds, which I was 
now never likely to receive ; a great sum out of my 
small earnings ! I loved him, notwithstanding, for he 
had many amiable qualities. I had improved my 
knowledge, however, though I had by no means im- 
proved my fortune; but I had made some very 
ingenious acquaintance, whose conversation was of 
great advantage to me, and I had read considerably. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 65 



CHAPTER IV, 

We sailed from Gravesend on the 23d of July, 
1726. For the incidents of the voyage I refer you to 
my journal, where you will find them all minutely 
related. Perhaps the most important part of that 
journal is thQplan^ to be found in it, which I framed 
at sea, for regulating the future conduct of my life. 
It is the more remarkable as being formed when I was 
so young, and yet being pretty faithfully adhered to 
quite through to old age. 

We landed at Philadelphia the 11th of October, 
where I found sundry alterations. Keith was no 
longer governor, being superseded by Major Gordon ; 
I met him walking the streets as a common citizen. 
He seemed a little ashamed at seeing me and passed 
without saying anything. I should have been as much 
ashamed at seeing Miss Read had not her friends, 
despairing with reason of my return after the receipt 
of my letter, persuaded her to marry another, one 
Rogers, a potter, which was done in my absence. 
With him, however, she was never happy, and soon 
parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him or bear 
his name, it being now said he had another wife. He 
was a worthless fellow, though an excellent work- 

* This plan does not exist in the manuscript journal found 
among Dr. Franklin's papers, which appears, by a note thereon, 
to be a ''copy made at Reading^ in Pennsylvania^ October 
%d^ 1787." 



66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY Off 

man, which was the temptation to her friends. He 
got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went to the 
"West Indies, and died there. Keiraer had got a better 
house, a shop well supplied with stationery, plenty of 
new types, and a number of hands, though none good, 
and seemed to have a great deal of business. 

Mr. Den ham took a store in Water Street, where 
we opened our goods ; I attended the business dili- 
gently, studied accounts, and grew in a little time 
expert at selling. We lodged and boarded together ; 
he counseled me as a father, having a sincere regard 
for me. I respected and loved him, and we might 
have gone on together very happily, but in the begin- 
ning of February, 1727, when I had just passed my 
twenty-first year, we both were taken ill. My dis- 
temper was a pleurisy, which very nearly carried me 
off. I suffered a good deal, gave up the point in my 
own mind, and was at the time rather disappointed 
when I found myself recovering ; regretting, in some 
degree, that I must now, some time or other, have all 
that disagreeable work to go over again. I forget 
what Mr. Deaham's distemper was ; it held him a long 
time and at length carried him off. He left me a 
small legacy in a nuncupative will as a token of his 
kindness for me, and he left me once more to the wide 
world ; for the store was taken into the care of his 
executors and my employment under him ended. 

My brother-in-law. Holmes, being now in Philadel- 
phia, advised my return to my business ; and Keimer 
tempted me, with an offer of large wages by the year, 
to come and take the management of his printing- 
house, that he might better attend to his stationer's 
shop. I had heard a bad character of him in London 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 6* 

from his wife and her friends, and was not for baring 
any more to do with him. I wished for employment 
as a merchant's clerk, but, not meeting with any, I 
closed again with Keimer. I found in his house these 
hands : Hugh Meredith, a Welsh Pennsylvanian, thirty 
years of age, bred to country work ; he was honest, 
sensible, a man of experience, and fond of reading, but 
addicted to drinking. Stephen Potts, a young country- 
man of full age, bred to the same, of uncommon 
natural parts and great wit and humor, but a little 
idle. These he had agreed with at extreme low wages 
per week, to be raised a shilling every three months, 
as they would deserve by improving in their business ; 
and the expectation of these high wages, to come on 
hereafter, was what he had drawn them in with. 
Meredith was to work at press; Potts at bookbinding, 
which he by agreement was to teach them, though he 

knew neither one nor the other; John , a wild 

Irishman, brought up to no business, whose services 
for four years Keimer had purchased from the captain 
of a ship; he, too, was to be made a pressman; 
George Webb, an Oxford scholar, whose time for four 
years he had likewise bought, intending him for a 
compositor, of whom more presently ; and David 
Harry, a country boy whom he had taken apprentice. 
I soon perceived that the intention of engaging me 
at wages so much higher than he had been used to give 
was to have these raw cheap hands formed through 
me ; and as soon as I had instructed them, they being 
all articled to him, he should be able to do without 
me. I went, however, very cheerfully, put his print- 
ing-house in order, which had been in great confusion, 
and brought his hands by degrees to mind their busi- 
ixess and to do it better. 



68 AilTOBIOGRAPBY OP 

It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in the 
situation of a bought servant. He was not more than 
eighteen years of age, and he gave me this account of 
himself : that he was born in Gloucester, educated at 
a grammar school, and had been distinguished among 
his scholars for some apparent superiority in perform- 
ing his part when they exhibited plays ; belonged to 
the Wits' Club there and had written some pieces in 
prose and verse, which were printed in the Gloucester 
newspapers. Thence was sent to Oxford ; there he 
continued about a year, but not well satisfied, wishing 
of all things to see London and become a player. At 
length receiving his quarterly allowance of fifteen 
guineas, instead of discharging his debts he went out 
of town, hid his gown in a furze bush, and walked to 
London, where, having no friend to advise him, he fell 
into bad company, soon spent his guineas, found no 
means of being introduced among the players, grew 
necessitous, pawned his clothes, and wanted bread. 
Walking the street very hungry, not knowing what 
to do with himself, a crimp's bill was put into his hand 
offering immediate entertainment and encouragement 
to such as would bind themselves to serve in America. 
He went directly, signed the indentures, was put into 
the ship and came over, never writing a line to his 
friends to acquaint them what was become of him. He 
was lively, witty, good-natured, and a pleasant com- 
panion, but idle, thoughtless, and imprudent to the 
last degree. 

John, the Irishman, soon ran away ; with the rest I 
began to live very agreeably, for they all respected 
me the more as they found Keimer incapable of in- 
structing them, and that from me they learned some- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 69 

thing daily. My acquaintance with ingenious people 
in the town increased. We never worked on Saturday, 
that being Keimer's Sabbath, so that I had two days 
for reading. Keiraer himself treated me with great 
civility and apparent regard, and nothing now made 
me uneasy but my debt to Yernon, which I was yet 
unable to pay, being hitherto but a poor economist. 
He, however, kindly made no demand of it. 

Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and there 
was no letter foundry in America. I had seen types 
cast at James' in London, but without much attention 
to the manner ; however, I contrived a mold and made 
use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the 
matrices in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable 
way all deficiencies. I also engraved several things 
on occasion; made the ink; I was warehouseman; 
and, in short, quite a factotum. 

But however serviceable I might be, I found that 
my services became every day of less importance as 
the other hands improved in their business ; and when 
Keimer paid me a second quarter's wages, he let me 
know that he felt them too heavy and thought I should 
make an abatement. He grew by degrees less civil, 
put on more the airs of master, frequently found fault, 
was captious, and seemed ready for an outbreaking. 
I went on nevertheless with a good deal of patience, 
thinking that his incumbered circumstances were 
partly the cause. At length a trifle snapped our con- 
nection ; for, a great noise happening near the court- 
house, I put my head out of the window to see what 
was the matter., Keiraer, being in the street, looked 
up and saw me, called out to me in a loud voice and 
angry tone to mind my business, adding some reproach- 



^0 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

f ul words that nettled me the more for their publicity ; 
all the neipjhbors who were looking out on the same 
occasion being witnesses how I was treated. He came 
up immediately into the printing-house ; continued the 
quarrel, high words passed on both sides, he gave me 
the quarter's warning we had stipulated, expressing a 
wish that he had not been obliged to give so long a 
warning. I told him his wish was unnecessary, for I 
would leave him that instant ; and so taking my hat 
walked out-of-doors, desiring Meredith, whom I saw 
below, to take care of some things I left and bring 
them to my lodgings. 

Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when 
we talked my affair over. He had conceived a great 
regard for me and was very unwilling that I should 
leave the hop.se while he remained in it. He dissuaded 
me from returning to my native country, which I be- 
gan to think of; reminded me that Keimer was in 
debt for all he possessed ; that his creditors began to 
be uneaa}^ ; that he kept his shop miserably, sold often 
without a profit for ready money, and often trusted 
without keeping accounts • that he must therefore fail, 
which would make a vacancy 1 might profit of. I 
objected my want of money. He then let me know 
that his father had a high opinion of me, and from 
some discourse that had passed between them he was 
sure would advance money to set me up if I would 
enter into partnership with him. "My time," said he. 
" will be out with Keimer in the spring ; by that 
time we may have our press and types m from London. 
I am sensible 1 am no workman. If you like it your 
skill in the business shall be set against the stock I 
furnishj and we will share the profits equally," 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 71 

The proposal was agreeable to me and I consented ; 
his father was in town and approved of it, the more as 
he said I had great influence with his son, had prevailed 
on him to abstain long from dram-drinking, and he 
hoped might break him of that wretched habit entirely 
when we came to be so closely connected. 1 gave an 
inventory to the father, who carried it to a merchant ; 
the things were sent for, the secret was to be kept till 
they should arrive, and in the mean time I was to get 
work, if 1 could, at the other printing-house. But I 
found no vacancy there, and so remained idle a few 
days, when Keimer, on a prospect of being employed 
to print some paper money in New Jersey which 
would require cuts and various types that I only could 
supply, and apprehending Bradford might engage me 
and get the job from him, sent me a very civil message 
that old friends should not part for a few words, the 
effect of sudden passion, and wishing me to return. 
Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it would give 
more opportunity for his improvement under my daily 
instructions ; so I returned, and we went on more 
smoothly than for some time before. The New Jersey 
job was obtained ; I contrived a copper-plate press for 
it, the first that had been seen in the country; I cut 
several ornaments and checks for the bills. We went 
together to Burlington, where I executed the whole to 
satisfaction, and he received so large a sum for the 
work as to be enabled thereby to keep himself longer 
from ruin. 

At Burlington I made acquaintance with many prin- 
cipal people of. the province. Several of them had 
been appointed by the Assembly a committee to attend 
the press and take care that no more bills were printed 



73 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

than the law directed. They were, therefore, by turns 
constantly with us, and generally he who attended 
brought with him a friend or two for company. My 
mind having been much more improved by reading 
than Keimer's, I suppose it was for that reason my 
conversation seemed to be more valued. They had me 
to their houses, introduced me to their friends, and 
showed me much civility ; while he, though the master, 
was a little neglected. In truth, he was an odd creature, 
ignorant of common life, fond of rudely opposing re- 
ceived opinions, slovenly to extreme dirtiness, enthusi- 
astic in some points of religion, and a little knavish 
withal. 

We continued there near three months, and by 
that time I could reckon among my acquired friends 
Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the Secretary of the 
Province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper, and several 
of the Smiths, members of Assembly, and Isaac Decow, 
the Surveyor-General. The latter was a shrewd, 
sagacious old man, who told me that he began for 
himself, when young, by wheeling clay for the brick- 
makers ; learned ta write after he was of age ; carried 
the chain for surveyors, who taught him surveying, 
and he had now, by his industry, acquired a good es- 
tate ; and said he, " I foresee that you will soon work 
this man out of his business and make a fortune in it 
at Philadelphia." He had then not the least intima- 
tion of my intention to set up there or anywhere. 
These friends were afterward of great use to me, as I 
occasionally was to some of them. They all continued 
their regard for me as long as they lived. 

Before I enter upon my public appearance in busi- 
nessj it may be well to let you know the then state of 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 73 

my mind with regard to my principles and morals, 
that you may see how far those influenced the future 
events of my life. My parents had early given me 
religious impressions and brought me through my 
childhood piously in the Dissenting way. But I was 
scarce fifteen when, after doubting by turns several 
points as I found them disputed in the different books 
I read, I began to doubt of the Eevelation itself. 
Some books against deism fell into my hands ; they 
were said to be the substance of the sermons which 
had been preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened 
that they wrought an eflfect on me quite contrary to 
what was intended by them. For the arguments of 
the deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared 
to me much stronger than the refutations ; in short, I 
soon became a thorough deist. My arguments per- 
verted some others, particularly Collins and Ealph, 
but each of those having wronged me greatly without 
the least compunction, and recollecting Keith's con- 
duct toward me (who was another freethinker) and 
my own toward Yernon and Miss Eead, which 
at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect 
that this doctrine, though it might be true, was 
not very useful. My London pamphlet, printed in 
1725,^ which had for its motto these lines of Dryden : 

'' Whatever is, is right. But purblind man 
Sees but a part o' the chain, the nearest links; 
His eyes not carrying to that equal beam, 
That poises all above," 

- *Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Benjamin Vaughan, dated Novem- 
ber 9th, 1779, gives -a further account of this pamphlet in these 
words: 
**It was addressed to Mr, J. K., that is, James Ralph, then a 



W ^ UTOBIOGEAPHT OF 

and which from the attributes of God, his infinite 
wisdom, goodness, and power, concluded that nothing 
could possibly be wrong in the world, and that vice 
and virtue were empty distinctions, no such things ex- 
isting, appeared now not so clever a performance as I 
once thought it ; and I doubted whether some error 
had not insinuated itself unperceived into my argument 
so as to infect all that followed, as is common in 
metaphysical reasonings. 

youth of about my age and my intimate friend, afterward a polit- 
ical writer and historian. The purport of it was to prove the 
doctrine of fate, from the supposed attributes of God, in some 
such manner as this. That in erecting and governing the world, 
as he was infinitely wise he knew what would be best; infinitely 
good, he must be disposed; and infinitely powerful, he must be 
able to execute it. Consequently all is right, 

** There were only a hundred copies printed, of which I gave 
a few to friends; and afterward disliking the piece, as conceiv- 
ing it might have an ill tendency, I burned the rest, except one 
copy, the margin of which was filled with manuscript notes by 
Lyons, author of ' The Infallibility of Human Judgment, who was 
at that time another of my acquaintance in London. I was not 
nineteen years of age when it was written. In 1730 I wrote a 
piece on the other side of the question, which began with laying 
for its foundation this fact: ^That almost all men in all ages 
and countries have at times made use of prayer.' Thence I 
reasoned that if all things are ordained, prayer must among the 
rest be ordained. But as prayer can procure no change in things 
that are ordained, prayer must then be useless and an absurdity. 
God would therefore not ordain praying if everything else was 
ordained. But praying exists, therefore all other things are not 
ordained, etc. This pamphlet was never printed and the manu- 
script has long been lost. The great uncertainty I found in meta- 
physical reasonings disgusted me, and I quitted that kind of 
reading and study for others more satisfactory," 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 75 

I grew convinced that truth^ sincerity^ and integrity^ ^y 
in dealings between man and man, were of the utmost 
importance to the felicity of life ,-andIformed written 
resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to 
practice them ever while I lived. Revelation had 
indeed no weight with me as such ; but I entertained an 
opinion that though certain actions might not be bad 
hecause they were forbidden by it, or good lecause it 
commanded them, yet probably those actions might be 
forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded 
hecause they were beneficial to us in their own natures, 
all the circumstances of things considered. And this 
persuasion, with the kind hand of Providence, or some 
guardian angel, or accidental favorable circumstances 
and situations, or all together, preserved me, through 
this dangerous time of youth and the hazardous situa- 
tions I was sometimes in among strangers, remote 
from the eye and advice of my father, free from any 
willful gross immorality or injustice that might have 
been expected from my want of religion. I say 
willful^ because the instances I have mentioned had 
something of necessity in them, from my youth, inex- 
perience, and the knavery of others. I had therefore 
a tolerable character to begin in the world with. 1 
valued it properly and determined to preserve it. 

We had not been long returned to Philadelphia 
before the new types arrived from London. We 
settled with Keimer and left him by his consent before 
he heard of it. We found a house to let near the 
market and took it. To lessen the rent, which was 
then but twenty -four pounds a year, though I have 
since known it let for seventy, we took in Thomas 
Godfrey, a glazier, and his family, who were to pay a 



76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

considerable part of it to us and we to board with 
them. We had scarce opened our letters and put our 
press in order, before George House, an acquaintance 
of mine, brought a countryman to us whom he had 
met in the street inquiring for a printer. All our cash 
was now expended in the variety of particulars we 
had been obliged to procure, and this countryman's 
five shillings, being our first-fruits and coming so 
seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any crown I 
have since earned ; and the gratitude I felt toward 
House has made me often more ready than perhaps I 
otherwise should have been to assist young begin- 
ners. 

There are croakers in every country, always boding 
its ruin. Such an one there lived in Philadelphia ; a 
person of note, an elderly man with a wise look and a 
very grave manner of speaking ; his name was Samuel 
Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopped 
me one day at my door and asked me if I was the 
young msii who had lately opened a new printing- 
house. Being answered in the affirmative, he said he 
was sorry for me, because it was an expensive under- 
taking and the expense would be lost ; for Philadelphia 
was a sinking place, the people already half-bankrupts 
or near being so ; all the appearances of the contrary, 
such as new buildings and the rise of rents, being to 
his certain knowledge fallacious, for they were in fact 
among the things that would ruin us. Then he gave 
me such a detail of misfortunes now existing or that 
were soon to exist that he left me half-melancholy. 
Had I known him before I engaged in this business, 
probably I never should have done it. This person 
continued to live in this decaying place and to declaim 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 77 

in the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a 
house there because all was going to destruction ; and 
at last I had the pleasure of seeing him give five times 
as much for one as he might have bought it for when 
he first began croaking. 



78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER V. 

I SHOULD have mentioned before that in the autumn 
of the preceding year I had formed most of my 
ingenious acquaintance into a club for mutual improve- 
ment, which we called the Junto. We met on Fridav 
evenings. The rules that I drew up required that 
every member in his turn should produce one or more 
queries on any point of morals, politics, or natural 
philosophy, to be discussed by the company ; and once 
in three months produce and read an essay of his 
own writing on any subject he pleased. Our debates 
were to be under the direction of a president and to 
be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after 
truth, without fondness for dispute or desire of victory ; 
and to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness 
in opinions or direct contradiction were after some 
time made contraband and prohibited under small 
pecuniary penalties. 

The first members were Joseph Breintnal, a copier 
of deeds for the scriveners, a good-natured, friendly, 
middle-aged man, a great lover of poetry, reading all 
he could meet with and writing some that was toler- 
able ; very ingenious in making little knick-knackeries 
and of sensible conversation. 

Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, great 
in his way and afterward inventor of w^hat is now 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 79 

called Hadley's quadrant.* But he knew little out of 
his way and was not a pleasing companion ; as, like 
most great mathematicians I hd:ve met with, he ex- 
pected universal precision in everything said, or was 
forever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the 
disturbance of all conversation. He soon left us. 

Mcholas Scull, a surveyor, afterward surveyor- 
general, who loved books and sometimes made a few 
verses. 

William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but loving 
reading, had acquired a considerable share of mathe- 
matics, which he first studied with a view to astrology 
and afterward laughed at it. He also became sur- 
veyor-general. 

William Mauridge, joiner, but a most exquisite 
mechanic, and a solid, sensible man. 

Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb I 
have characterized before. 

Kobert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune, 
generous, lively, and witty ; a lover of punning and of 
his friends. 

Lastly, William Coleman, then a merchant's clerk, 
about my age, who had the coolest, clearest head, the 
best heart, and exactest morals of almost any man I 
have ever met with. He became afterward a merchant 
of great note and one of our provincial judges. Our 
friendship continued without interruption to his death, 
upward of forty years ; and the club continued almost 
as long and was the best school of philosoph}^ morality, 
and politics that then existed in the province, for our 

* Godfrey's claims - to this invention are fully explained and 
confirmed in Miller's " Eetrospect of the Eighteenth Century," 
YoL L, pp. 468—480. 



80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

querieg, which were read the week preceding their 
discussion, put us upon reading with attention on the 
several subjects, that we might speak more to the 
purpose ; and here, too, we acquired better habits of 
conversation, everything being studied in our rules 
which might prevent our disgusting each other. Hence 
the long continuance of the club, which I shall have 
frequent occasion to speak further of hereafter. 

But my giving this account of it here is to show 
something of the interest I had, every one of these 
exerting themselves in recommending business to us. 
Breintnal particularly procured us from the Quakers 
the printing of forty sheets of their history, the rest 
being done by Keimer, and upon these we worked ex- 
ceedingly hard, for the price was low. It was a folio, 
jpro patria size, in pica, with long primer notes. I 
composed a sheet a day and Meredith worked it off at 
press. It was often eleven at night, and sometimes 
later, before I had finished my distribution for the 
next day's work ; for the little jobs sent in by our 
other friends now and then put us back. But so de- 
termined I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the 
folio that one night, when having imposed my forms 
I thought my day's work over, one of them by accident 
was broken and two pages reduced to pi, I imme- 
diately distributed and composed it over again before 
I went to bed ; and this industry, visible to our neigh- 
bors, began to give us character and credit. Partic- 
ularly I was told that mention being made of the new 
printing-oflBce at the merchant's every-night club, the 
general opinion was that it must fail, there being 
already two printers in the place, Keimer and Brad- 
ford. But Dr. Baird (whom you and I saw many years 



nSNJAMIN FRANKLm. 8l 

after at his native place, St. Andrew's, in Scotland) 
gave a contrary opinion : " For the industry of that 
Franklin," said he, " is superior ,to anything I ever 
saw of the kind. I see him still at work when I go 
home from club, and he is at work again before his 
neighbors are out of bed." This struck the rest, and 
we soon after Iiad offers from one of them to supply 
us with stationery, but as yet we did not choose to 
engage in shop business. 

I mention this industry more particularly and the 
more freely, though it seems to be talking in my own 
praise, that those of my posterity who shall read it 
may know the use of that virtue when they see its 
effects in my favor throughout this relation. 

George Webb, who had found a female friend that 
lent him wherewith to purchase his time of Keimer, 
now came to offer himself as a journeyman to us. We 
could not then emplo}^ him ; but I foolishly let him 
know, as a secret, that I soon intended to begin a 
newspaper and might then have work for him. My 
hopes of success, as I told him, were founded on this : 
that the then only newspaper, printed by Bradford, 
was a paltry thing, wretchedly managed, no way 
entertaining, and yet was profitable to him ; I there- 
fore freely thought a good paper would scarcely fail 
of good encouragement. I requested Webb not to 
mention it, but he told it to Keimer, who immediately, 
to be beforehand with me, published proposals for one 
himself, on which Webb was to be employed. I was 
vexed at this, and to counteract them, not being able 
to commence our paper, I wrote several amusing pieces 
for Bradford's paper, under the title of " The Bus}^- 
Body," which Breintnal continued some months. By 



82 AVTOmOGRAPHY OF 

this means the attention of the public was fixed on 
that paper, and Keimer's proposals, which we bur- 
lesqued and ridiculed, were disregarded. He began his 
paper, however, and before carrying it on three- 
quarters of a year, with at most only ninety subscribers, 
he offered it me for a trifle ; and I, having been ready 
some time to go on with it, took it in hand directly, 
and it proved in a few years extremely profitable to 
me.^ 

I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular 
number, though our partnership still continued; it 
may be that in fact the whole management of the 
business lay upon me. Meredith was no compositor, 
a poor pressman, and seldom sober. My friends 
lamented my connection with him, but I was to make 
the best of it. 

Our first papers made quite a different appearance 
from any before in the province ; a better type and 
better printed ; but some remarks of my writing on 
the dispute then going on between Governor Burnet 
and the Massachusetts Assembly struck the principal 
people, occasioned the paper and the manager of it to 
be much talked of, and in a few weeks brought them 
all to be our subscribers. 

Their example was followed by many, and our 
number went on growing continually. This was one 
of the first good effects of my having learned a little 
to scribble. Another was that the leading men, seeing 
a newspaper now in the hands of those who could also 
handle a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and en- 
courage me. Bradford still printed the votes and 

* It was called the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin and Mere- 
dith began the paper with No. 40, September 25th, 1789. 



BMJAMm FRANKLW, 83 

laws and other public business. He bad printed an 
address of the House to the governor in a coarse, 
blundering manner. We reprinted it elegantly and 
correctly and sent one to every member. They were 
sensible of the difference, it strengthened the hands of 
our friends in the House, and they voted us their 
printers for the year ensuing. 

Among my friends in the House I must not forget 
Mr. Hamilton, before mentioned, who was then 
returned from England and had a seat in it. He 
interested himself for me strongly in that instance, as 
he did in miany others afterward, continuing his 
patronage till his death. 

Mr. Vernon about this time put me in mind of the 

• debt I owed him, but did not press me. I wrote to 
him an ingenuous letter of acknowledgment, craving 
his forbearance a little longer, which he allowed me. 
As soon as I was able I paid the principal, with the 
interest and many thanks, so that erratum was in some 
degree corrected. 

But now another diflSculty came upon me, which I 
had never the least reason to expect. Mr. Meredith's 
father,, who was to have paid for our printing-house, 
according to the expectations given me, was able to 
advance only one hundred pounds currency, which had 
been paid, and a hundred more were due to the 
merchant, who grew impatient and sued us all. We 
gave bail, but saw that if the money could not be 

• raised in time the suit must soon come to a judgment 
and execution, and our hopeful prospects must with 
us be ruined, as the press and letters must be sold for 
payment, perhaps at half-price. 

In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I 



g4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

har© nerer forgotten nor ever shall forget while I ean 
remember anything, came to me separately, unknown 
to each other, and, without any application from me, 
offered each of them to advance me all the money that 
should be necessary to enable me to take the whole 
business upon myself, if that should be practicable ; 
but they did not like my continuing the partnership 
with Meredith, who, as they said, was often seen drunk 
in the street, playing at low games in ale-houses, much 
to our discredit. These two friends were William 
Coleman and Eobert Grace. I told them I could not 
propose a separation while any prospect remained of 
the Merediths fulfilling their part of our agreement, 
because I thought myself under great obligations to 
them for what they had done and would do if they 
could, but if they finally failed in their performance 
and our partnership must be dissolved, I should then 
think myself at liberty to accept the assistance of my 
friends. 

Thus the matter rested for some time, when I said 
to my partner: "Perhaps your father is dissatisfied 
at the part you have undertaken in this affair of ours 
and is unwilling to advance for you and me what he 
would for you. If that is the case tell me, and I will 
resign the whole to you and go about my business." 
"No," said he, "my father has really been dis- 
appointed and is really unable, and I am unwilling to 
distress him further. I see this is a business I am not 
fit for. I was bred a farmer, and it was folly in me 
to come to town and put myself, at thirty years of age, 
an apprentice to learn a new trade. Many of our 
Welsh people are going to settle in North Carolina, 
where land is cheap. I am inclined to go with them 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 85 

and follow my old employment ; you may find friendg 
to assist you. If you take the debts of the company 
upon you, return to my father the hundred pounds he 
has advanced, pay my little personal debts, and give 
me thirty pounds and a new saddle, 1 will relinquish 
the partnership and leave the whole in your hands." 
I agreed to this proposal ; it was drawn up in writing, 
signed and sealed immediately. I gave him what he 
demanded and he went soon after to Carolina, whence 
he sent me next year two long letters, containing the 
best account that had been given of that country, the 
climate, the soil, and husbandry, for in those matters 
he was very judicious. I printed them in the paper, 
and they gave great satisfaction to the public. 

As soon as he was gone I recurred to my two friends 
and, because I would not give an unkind preference to 
either, I took half of what each had offered and I 
wanted of one, and half of the other, paid off the 
company's debt, and went on with the business in my 
own name, advertising that the partnership was 
dissolved. I think this was in or about the year 1729."^ 

* The dissolution of the partnership was a year later, as 
appears by the following agreement, transcribed from the 
original in Franklin's handwriting. — Ed. 

''Be it remembered, that Hugh Meredith and Benjamin 
Franklin have this day separated as partners, and will henceforth 
act each on his own account; and that the said Hugh Meredith, 
for a valuable consideration by him received from the said 
Benjamin Franklin, hath relinquished, and doth hereby relin- 
quish, to the said Franklin, all claim, right, or property to or in 
the printing materials and stock heretofore jointly possessed by 
them in partnership ; and to all debts due to them as partners 
in the course of their, business^ which are all from' henceforth 
the sole property of the said Benjamin Franklin. In witness 
whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 14th day of July, 
1730, Hugh Meredith," , 



86 AtrTOBIOGEAPRT OP 

About this time there was a cry among the people 
for more paper money, only fifteen thousand pounds 
being extant in the province, and that soon to be sunk. 
The wealthy inhabitants opposed any addition, being 
against all paper currency, from the apprehension that 
it would depreciate as it had done in New England, to 
the injury of all creditors. We had discussed this 
point in our Junto, where I was on the side of an 
addition, being persuaded that the first small sum, 
struck in 1723, had done much good by increasing the 
trade, omployment and number of inhabitants in the 
province, since I now saw all the old houses inhabited 
and many new ones building ; whereas I remembered 
well, when I first walked about the streets of Philadel- 
phia eating my roll, I saw many of the houses in 
Walnut Street, between Second and Front Streets, 
with bills on their doors, '• To he let^ and many like- 
wise in Chestnut Street and other streets, which made 
me think the inhabitants of the city were, one after 
another, deserting it. 

Our debates possessed me so fully of the subject 
that I wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet on 
it, entitled " The Nature and Necessity of a Paper 
Currency." ^ It was well received by the com- 

^ " It is little known or set down to the condemnation of 
Franklin that, when he was young in business, and stood in need 
of sundry articles in the line of his profession as a printer, he 
had the ingenuity to make them for himself. In this way he 
founded letters of lead, engraved various printing ornaments, 
cut wood-cuts, made printer's ink, engraved copper-plate vi- 
gnettes, and made his plate-press." — Watson's ''Annals of Phila- 
delphia," p. 513. 

Mr. Watson relates another anecdote. He says that the "yel- 
low willow tree," now so common throughout the country, w^as 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 87 

mon people in general, but the rich men disliked it, for 
it increased and strengthened the clamor for more 
money ; and they happening to have no writers among 
them that were able to answer it, their opposition 
slackened and the point was carried by a majority in 
the House. My friends there, who considered I had 
been of some service, thought fit to reward me by 
employing me in printing the money ; a very profit- 
able job and a great help to me. This was another 
advantage gained by my being able to write. 

The utility of this currency became by time -a^nd ex- 
perience so evident that the principles upon which it 
was founded were never afterward much disputed, so 
that it grew soon to fifty-five thousand pounds, and in 
1739 to eighty thousand pounds ; trade, building, and 
inhabitants all the while increasing. Though I now 
think there are limits beyond which the quantity may 
be hurtful. 

first introduced into America by Franklin. A wicker-basket 
made of willow, in which some foreign article had been imported, 
he saw sprouting in a ditch, and directed some of the twigs to be 
planted. They took root, and from these shoots are supposed to 
have sprung all the yellow willows which have grown on this side 
of the Atlantic. 

Chaptal ascribes to Franklin also the introduction of the agri- 
cultural use of plaster of Paris into the United States. ' ^ As 
this celebrated philosopher," says he, '' wished that the effects of 
this manure should strike the gaze of all cultivators, he wrote in 
great letters, formed by the use of the ground plaster, in a field 
of clover lying upon the great road, ^ This has been plastered.'' 
The prodigious vegetation which was developed in the plastered 
portion led him to adopt this method. Volumes upon the excel- 
lency of plaster would not have produced so speedy a revolu- 
tion. From that period the Americans have imported great 
quantities of plaster of Paris. "—Chaptal's '' Agricultural Chem- 
istry," Boston edition, p. 73.— En. 



88 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

I soon after obtainedj through my friend Ham- 
ilton, the printing of the 'Newcastle paper money, 
another profitable job, as I then thought it; small 
things appearing great to those in small circumstances, 
and these to me were really great advantages, as 
they were great encouragements. Mr. Hamilton 
procured for me also the printing of the laws and votes 
of that government, which continued in my hands as 
long as I followed the business. 

I now opened a small stationer's shop. I had in it 
blanks of all kinds, the correctest that ever appeared 
among us. I was assisted in that way by my friend 
Breintnal. I had also paper, parchment, chap-men's 
books, etc. One Whitemarsh, a compositor I had 
known in London, an excellent workman, now came to 
me and worked with me constantly and diligently ; 
and I took an apprentice, the son of Aquila Rose. 

I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under 
for the printing-house. In order to secure my credit 
and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be 
in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid the ap- 
pearances to the contrary. I dressed plain and was 
seen at no places of idle diversion. I never went out 
a-fishing or shooting; a book indeed sometimes de- 
bauched me from my work, but that was seldom, was 
private, and gave no scandal ; and to show that I was 
not above my business, I sometimes brought home the 
paper I purchased at the stores through the streets on 
a wheelbarrow. Thus being esteemed an industrious, 
thriving young man and paying duly for what I 
bought, the merchants who imported stationery solic- 
ited my custom, others proposed supplying me with 
books, and I went on prosperously. In the mean time^ 



BENJAMIN FMANKLIK 89 

Keimer's credit and business declining daily, he was at 
last forced to sell his printing-house, to satisfy his cred- 
itors. He went to Barbadoes and there lived some 
years in very poor circumstances. 

His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had instructed 
while I worked with him, set up in his place at Phila- 
delphia, having bought his materials. I was at first 
apprehensive of a powerful rival in Harry, as his 
friends were very able and had a good deal of interest. 
I therefore proposed a partnership to him, which he 
fortunately for me rejected with scorn. He was very 
proud, dressed like a gentleman, lived expensively, 
took much diversion and pleasure abroad, ran in debt, 
and neglected his business ; upon which all business 
left him, and finding nothing to do, he followed 
Keimer to Barbadoes, taking the printing-house with 
him. There this apprentice employed his former 
master as a journeyman ; they quarreled often, and 
Harry went continually behindhand and at length was 
obliged to sell his types and return to country work in 
Pennsylv^ania. The person who bought them employed 
Keimer to use them, but a few years after he died. 

There remained now no other printer in Philadel- 
phia but the old Bradford ; but he was rich and easy, 
did a little in the business by straggling hands, but 
was not anxious about it. However, as he held the 
post-oflBlce, it was imagined he had better opportunities 
of obtaining news, his paper was thought a better 
distributer of advertisements than mine, and therefore 
had many more ; which was a profitable thing to him 
and a disadvantage to me. For though I did, indeed, 
receive and send papers by the post, yet the public 
opinion was otherwise ; for what I did send was by 



90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

bribing the riders^ who took them privately, Bradford 
being unkind enough to forbid it, which occasioned 
some resentment on my part ; and I thought so meanly 
of the practice that when I afterward came into his 
situation I took care never to imitate it. 

I had hitherto continued to board with Godfrey, 
who lived in a part of my house with his wife and 
children and had one side of the shop for his glazier's 
business, though he worked little, being always ab- 
sorbed in his mathematics. Mrs. Godfrey projected a 
match for me with a relation's daughter, took oppor- 
tunities of bringing us often together, till a serious 
courtship on my part ensued, the girl being in herself 
very deserving. The old folks encouraged me by 
continual invitations to supper and by leaving us 
together, till at length it was time to explain. Mrs. 
Godfrey managed our little treaty. I let her know 
that I expected as much money with their daughter 
as would pay off my remaining debt for the printing- 
house, which I believe was not then above a hundred 
pounds. She brought me word they had no such 
sum to spare. I said they might mortgage their 
house in the loan office. The answer to this, after 
some days, was that they did not approve the match ; 
that on inquiry of Bradford they had been informed 
the printing business was not a profitable one, the 
types would soon be worn out and more wanted ; that 
Keimer and David Harrv had failed one after the 
other, and I should probably soon follow them ; and 
therefore I was forbidden the house and the daughter 
was shut up. 

Whether this was a real change of sentiment or 
only artifice, on a supposition of our being too far 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 91 

engaged in affection to retract, and therefore that we 
should steal a marriage, which would leave them at 
liberty to give or withhold what they pleased, I know 
not. But I suspected the motive, resented it, and 
Tvent no more. Mrs. Godfrey brought me afterward 
some more favorable accounts of their disposition and 
would have drawn me on again, but I declared abso- 
lutely my resolution to have nothing more to do with 
that family. This was resented by the Godfreys, we 
differed, and they removed, leaving me the whole 
house, and I resolved to take no more inmates. 

But this affair having turned my thoughts to 
marriage, I looked round me and made overtures of 
acquaintance in other places, but soon found that the 
business of a printer being generally thought a poor 
one, I was not to expect money with a wife, unless with 
such a one as I should not otherwise think agreeable. 
In the mean time, that hard-to-be-governed passion of 
youth had hurried me frequently into intrigues with 
low women that fell in my way, which were attended 
with some expense and great inconvenience, besides a 
continual risk to my health by a distemper, which of 
all things 1 dreaded, though by great good luck I 
escaped it. 

A friendly correspondence as neighbors had con- 
tinued between me and Miss Eead's family, who all 
had a regard for me from the time of my first lodging 
in their house. I was often invited there and con- 
sulted in their affairs, wherein I sometimes was of 
service. I pitied poor Miss Eead's unfortunate situa- 
tion, who was generally dejected, seldom cheerful, and 
avoided company. I considered my giddiness and 
inconstancy when in London as, in a great degree, th^ 



92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

cause of her unhappiness, though the mother was good 
enough to think the fault. more her own than mine, as 
she had prevented our marrying before I w^ent thither 
and persuaded the other match in my absence. Our 
mutual affection was revived, but there were now 
great objections to our union. That match was indeed 
looked upon as invalid, a preceding wife being said 
to be living in England, but this could not easily be 
proved, because of the distance, etc. ; and though there 
was a report of his death, it was not certain. Then, 
though it should be true, he had left many debts, 
which his successor might be called upon to pay. We 
ventured, however, over all these difficulties, and I 
took her to wife September 1st, 1730. None of the 
inconveniences happened that we had apprehended. 
She proved a good and faithful helpmate, assisted me 
much by attending to the shop ; we throve together 
and ever mutuallv endeavored to make each other 
happy. Thus I corrected that great erratum sls well 
as I could. 

About this time our club meeting, not at a tavern, but 
in a little room of Mr. Grace's set apart for that pur- 
pose, a proposition was made by me that since our 
books were often referred to in our disquisitions upon 
the queries, it might be convenient to us to have them 
all together where we met, that upon occasion they 
might be consulted ; and by thus clubbing our books 
in a common library we should, while we liked to keep 
them together, have each of us the advantage of using 
the books of all the other members, which would be 
nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole. It 
was liked and agreed to, and we filled one end of the 
room with such books as we could best spare. The 



BENJAMIN FBANKLm. 93 

number was not so great as we expected, and though 
they had been of great use; yet some inconveniences 
occurring for want of dae care of *them, the collection, 
after about a 3^ear, was separated, and each took his 
books home again. 

And now I set on foot my first project of a public 
nature— that for a subscription library. I drew up 
the proposals; got them put into form by our great 
scrivener, Brockden, and by the help of my friends in 
the Junto procured fifty subscribers of forty shillings 
each to begin with and ten shillings a year for fifty 
years, the term our company was to continue. We 
afterward obtained a charter, the company being in- 
creased to one hundred. This was the mother of all 
the North American subscription libraries, now so 
numerous ; it is become a great thing itself and con- 
tinually goes on increasing. The libraries have im- 
proved the general conversation of the Americans, 
made the common tradesmen and farmers as intellio-ent 
as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps 
have contributed in some degree to the stand so 
generally made throughout the colonies in defense of 
their privileges. 



94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER IV.* 

At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania 
there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the 
colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York 
and Philadelphia the printers were indeed stationers, 
but they sold only paper^ ahnanacs, ballads, and a few 
common school-books. Those who loved reading were 
obliged to send for their books from England ; the 
members of the Junto had each a few. We had left 
the ale-house where we first met and hired a room to 
hold our club in. I proposed that we should all of us 
bring our books to that room, where they would not 
only be ready to consult in our conferences, but be- 
come a common benefit, each of us being at liberty to 
borrow such as he wished to read at home. This was 
accordingly done and for some time contented us. 

Finding the advantage of this little collection, I pro- 
posed to render the benefit from the books more com- 
mon by commencing a public subscription library. I 
drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be 
necessary, and got a skillful conveyancer, Mr. Charles 

* Down to this period the memoir was written in the year 1771, 
and the task was then laid aside for several years. In the mean 
time the manuscript was shown to several of the author's friends, 
who pressed him to complete what he had begun. He accord- 
ingly yielded to their solicitations, and to the part with which 
this chapter commences he prefixed the following introductory 
^remarks and ^Iso the two letters to which he alludes. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 9S 

Brockden, to put the whole in form of articles of 
agreement to be subscribed, by which each subscriber 
engaged to pay a certain sum down for the first pur- 
chase of the books and an annual contribution for in- 
creasing them. So few were the readers at that time 
in Philadelphia, and the majority of us so poor, that I 
was not able, with great industry, to find more than 
fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay 
down for this purpose forty shillings each and ten 
shillings per annum. With this little fund we began. 
The books were imported. The library was opened 
one day in the week for lending them to subscribers, 
on their promissory notes to pay double the value if 
not duly returned. The institution soon manifested 
its utility, was imitated by other towns and in other 
provinces. The libraries were augmented by dona- 
tions, reading became fashionable, and our people, 
having no public amusements to divert their attention 
from study, became better acquainted with books, and 
in a few years were observed by strangers to be better 
instructed and more intelligent than people in the 
same rank generally are in other countries. 

When we were about to sign the above-mentioned 
articles, which were to be binding on us, our heirs, 
etc., for fifty years, Mr. Brockden, the scrivener, said 
to us: " You are young men, but it is scarcel}^ possible 
that any of 3^ou will live to see the expiration of the 
term fixed in the instrument." A number of us, how- 
ever, are yet living ; but the instrument was after a 
few years rendered null by a charter that incorporated 
and gave perpetuity to the company. 

The objections and reluctances I met with in solicit- 
ing the subscriptions made me soon feel the impropriety 



96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

of presenting one's aelf as the proposer of any useful 
project that might be supposed to raise one's reputa- 
tion in the smallest degree above that of one's neigh- 
bors, when one has need of their assistance to accom- 
plish that project. I therefore put myself as much as 
I could out of sight, and stated it to be a scheme of 
a number of friends who had requested me to go about 
and propose it to such as they thought lovers of read- 
ing. In this way my aflfair went on more smoothly, 
and I ever after practiced it on such occasions ; and 
from my frequent successes can heartily recommend it. 
The present little sacrifice of your vanity will after- 
ward be amply repaid. If it remains awhile uncertain 
to whom the merit belongs, some one more vain than 
yourself may be encouraged to claim it, and then even 
envy will be disposed to do you justice by plucking 
those assumed feathers and restoring them to their 
right owner. 

This library afforded me the means of improvement 
by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two 
each day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of 
the learned education my father once intended for me. 
Eeading was the only amusement I allowed myself. I 
spent no time in taverns, games, or frolics of any kind ; 
and my industry in my business continued as indefati- 
gable as it was necessary. I was indebted for my 
printing-house, I had a young family coming on to be 
educated, and I had two competitors to contend with 
for business who were established in the place before 
me. M}'' circumstances, however, grew daily easier. 
My original habits of frugality continuing, and my 
father having, among his instructions to me when a 
boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, 



Benjamin mANKLiN. ^ 

" 8eesi thou a man diligent in his oalling^ he shall stand 
before kings, he shall not stand before mean men^'^ I 
thence considered industry as a means of obtaining 
wealth and distinction which encouraged me — though 
I did not think that I should ever literally stand before 
kings, which, however, has since happened ; for I have 
stood before five, and even had the honor of sitting 
down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner. 

We have an English proverb that says, " He that 
would thrive must ask his wife." It was lucky for me 
that I had one as much disposed to industry and 
frugality as myself. She assisted me cheerfully in my 
business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending 
shop, purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers, 
etc. We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and 
simple, our furniture of the cheapest. For instance, 
my breakfast for a long time was bread and milk (no 
tea), and I eat it out of a twopenny earthen porringer 
with a pewter spoon. But mark how luxuries will 
enter families and make a progress in spite of principle : 
being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in 
a china bowl with a spoon of silver ! They had been 
bought for me without my knowledge by my wife, and 
had cost her the enormous sum of twenty-three shil- 
lings, for which she had no other excuse or apology to 
make but that she thought her husband deserved a 
silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of his 
neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate and 
china in our house, which afterward, in a course of 
years as our wealth increased, augmented gradually 
to several hundred pounds in value. 

I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian ; 
but though some of the dogmas of that persuasion, 



98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

such as the eternal decrees of God^ election^ reprobationy 
etCy appeared to me very unintelligible, others doubtful, 
and I early absented myself from the public assem- 
blies of the sect, Sunday being my studying day, I 
never was without some religious principles. I never 
doubted, for instance, the existence of a Deity — that 
he made the world and governed it by his providence 
— that the most acceptable service of God was the 
doing good to man — that our souls are immortal — and 
that all crimes will be punished and virtue rewarded, 
either here or hereafter. These I esteemed the essen- 
tials of every religion ; and being to be found in all 
the religions we had in our country, I respected them 
all, though with different degrees of respect, as I 
found them more or less mixed with other articles 
which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or 
confirm morality, served principally to divide us and 
make us unfriendly to one another. This respect to 
all, with an opinion that the worst had some good 
effects, induced me to avoid all discourse that might 
tend to lessen the good opinion another might have of 
his own religion ; and as our province increased in 
people, and new places of worship were continually 
wanted and generally erected by voluntary contribu- 
tion, my mite for such purpose, whatever might be 
the sect, was never refused. 

Though I seldom attended any public worship, I had 
still an opinion of its propriety and of its utility when 
rightly conducted, and I regularly paid my annual 
subscription for the support of the only Presbyterian 
minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia. He used 
to visit me sometimes as a friend and admonish me to 
attend his administrations, and I was now and then 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 99 

prevailed on to do so, once for five Sundays succes- 
sively. Had he been in my opinion a good preacher, 
perhaps I might have continued, notwithstanding the 
occasion I had for Sunday's leisure in my course of 
study ; but his discourses were chiefly either polemic 
arguments or explications of the peculiar doctrines of 
our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, 
and unedifying ; since not a single moral principle was 
inculcated or enforced, their aim seeming to be 
rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens. 

At length he took for his text that verse of the 
fourth chapter to the Philippians : " Finally ^ brethren^ 
whatsoever things are true^ honesty just, pure^ lovely^ 
or of good rejport^ if there be any virtue^ or any praise^ 
think on these thingsP And I imagined in a sermon on 
such a text, we could not miss of having some moral- 
ity. But he confined himself to five points only, as 
meant by the apostle : 1. Keeping holy the Sabbath 
day. 2. Being diligent in reading the holy Scriptures. 
3. Attending dul}^ the public worship. 4. Partaking 
of the Sacrament. 5. Paying due respect to God's 
ministers. These might be all good things ; but as they 
were not the kind of good things that I expected from 
that text, I despaired of ever meeting with them from 
any other, was disgusted, and attended his preaching 
no more. I had some years before composed a little 
liturgy or form of prayer for my own private use (in 
1728), entitled '' Articles of Belief and Acts of Eeli- 
gion." I returned to the use of this and went no 
more to the public assemblies. My conduct might be 
blamable, but I leave it without attempting further to 
excuse it ; my present purpose being to relate facts 
and not to make, apologies for them. 



loo AUTOBtOaBAPHY OP 

It was about this time I conceived the bold and 
arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I 
wished to live without committing any fault at any 
time, and to conquer allthat either natural inclination, 
custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, 
or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did 
not see why I might not always do the one and avoid 
the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task 
of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my 
attention was taken up and care employed in guarding 
against one fault, I was often surprised b}^ another; 
habit took the advantage of inattention ; inclination 
was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded at 
length that the mere speculative conviction that it was 
our interest to be completely virtuous was not suffi- 
cient to prevent our slipping, and that the contrary 
habits must be broken and good ones acquired and es- 
tablished before we can have any dependence on a 
steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this pur- 
pose I therefore tried the following method. 

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues 
I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue 
more or less numerous, as different writers included 
more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temper- 
ance^ for example, was by some confined to eating and 
drinking ; while by others it was extended to mean 
the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclina- 
tion, or passion, bodily or mentally, even to our 
avarice and ambition. I proposed to myself, for the 
sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with 
fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with 
more ideas ; and I included under thirteen names of 
virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 101 

or desirabldj and annexed to each a sh#rt preempt 
which fully expressed the extent I gave to it« 
meaning. 
The names of vwtues^ with their precepts, were : 

1. Tempekance. — Eat not to dullness ; drink not to 
elevation. 

2. Silence. — Speak not but what may benefit 
others or yourself ; avoid trifling conversation. 

3. Oedee. — Let all your things have their places ; 
let each part of your business have its time. 

4. Resolution. — Resolve to perform what you 
ought ; perform without fail what you resolve. 

5. Frugality. — Make no expense but to do good to 
others or yourself ; that is, waste nothing. 

6. Industry. — Lose no time ; be always employed 
in something useful ; cut off all unnecessary actions. 

7. Sincerity. — Use no hurtful deceit; think inno- 
cently and justly ; and, if you speak, speak accord- 
ingly. 

8. Justice. — Wrong none by doing injuries or 
omitting the benefits that are your duty. 

9. Moderation. — Avoid extremes ; forbear resenting 
injuries, so much as you think they deserve. 

10. Cleanliness. — Tolerate no uncleanliness in 
body, clothes, or habitation. 

11. Tranquillity.— Be not disturbed at trifles or at 
accidents common or unavoidable. 

12. Chastity 

13. Humility. — Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all 
these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract 
my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to 



10^ AUTOBIOGBAPEY OP 

fix it on one of them at a time ; and when I should be 
master of that, then to proceed to another ; and so on 
till I should have gone through the thirteen. And as 
the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the 
acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with the 
view as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends 
to procure that coolness and clearness of head which 
is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be 
kept up and a guard maintained against the unremit- 
ting attraction of ancient habits and the force of 
perpetual temptations. This being acquired and 
established, silence would be more easy ; and my desire 
being to gain knowledge at the same time that I im- 
proved in virtue, and considering that in conversation 
it was obtained rather by the use of the ear than of 
the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit 1 
was getting into of prattling, punning, and jesting, 
which only made me acceptable to trifling company, 
I gave silence the second place. This and the next, 
order ^ I expected would allow me more time for at- 
tending to my project and my studies. Resolution^ 
once become habitual, would keep me firm in my 
endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues ; 
frugality and m(i^^5^^r2/ relieving me from my remainmg 
debt, and producing affluence and independence, 
would make more easy the practice of sincerity and 
justice^ etc., etc. Conceiving, then, that, agreeably to 
the advice of Pythagoras in his " Golden Verses," 
daily examination would be necessarj^, I contrived 
the following method for conducting that examina- 
tion. 

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for 
each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. 



103 



SO as to have seven columns, one for each day of the 
week, marking each column with a letter for the day. 
I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, mark- 

FORM OF THE PAGES. 

TEMPERANCE. 

Eat not to dullness; drink not to eU'cation, 





Sun. 


M. 


T. 


W. 


Th. 


F. 


S. 


Tern. 
















Sil. 


* 


* 




* 




* 




Ord. 


* 


* 






* 


* 


* 


Res. 


■ 


* 








* 




Fru. 




* 








* 




Ind. 






* 










Sine. 
















Jus. 
















Mod. 
















Clea. 
















Tran. 
















Chas. 
















Hum. 

















ing the beginning of each line with the first letter of 
one of the virtues ; on which line, and in its proper 
column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every 



104 AUTOBIOaRAPHY OF 

fault I found upon examination to have been com- 
mitted respecting that virtue upon that day.^ 

I determined to give a week's strict attention to 
each of the virtues successively. Thus in the first 
week my great guard was to avoid every day the least 
offense against temjperance ; leaving other virtues to 
their ordinary chance, only marking every evening 
the faults of the day. Thus if in the first week I 
could keep my first line, marked Tem. clear of spots, I 
supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened 
and its opposite weakness that I might venture 
extending my attention to include the next, and for 
the following week keep both lines clear of spots. 
Proceeding thus to the last, I could get through a 
course complete in thirteen weeks and four courses in 
a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, 
does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, 
which would exceed his reach and his strength, but 
works on one of the beds at a time, and having accom- 
plished the first proceeds to the second, so I should 
have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on 
my pages the progress made in virtue, by clearing 
successively my lines of their spots ; till in the end, 
by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing 
a clean book after a thirteen weeks' daily examination. 

This m.j little book had for its motto these lines 
from Addison's " Cato :" 

" Here will I hold. If there's a power above us 
(A.nd that there is, all nature cries aloud 
Through all her works), He must delight in virtue; 
And that which He delights in must be happy." 

^ This little book is dated Sunday, 1st July, 1733.— W. T. F. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 105 

Another from Cicero : , 

^'Ovitae PhilosopMa dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrix- 
quevitiorum! Unus dies, bene et expraeceptis tuis actus, peccanti 
immortalitati est anteponendus." 

Another from the Poverbs of Solomon, speaking of 
wisdom or virtue : 

*' Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand 
riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
her paths are peace." 

And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I 
thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance 
for obtaining it; to this end I formed the following 
little prayer, which was prefixed to my tables of 
examination for daily use : 

**0 powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! 
Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. 
Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. 
Accept my kind offices to Thy other children as the only return 
in my power for Thy continual favors to me." 

I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took 
from Thomson's " Poems/' viz. : 

** Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme! 
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! 
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, 
From every low pursuit; and feed my soul 
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; 
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!" 

The precept of order requiring that every part of my 
hv^iness should have its allotted time^ one page in ray 
little book contained the appended scheme of employ- 
ment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day, 



106 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



I entered upon the execution of this plan for self- 
examination and continued it with occasional inter- 
missions for some time. I was surprised to find myself 
so much fuller of faults than 1 had imagined; but I had 
the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the 
trouble of renewing now and then my little book, 



SCHEME. 



Hours. 



Morning. 
The Question. What 
good shall I do this day? 



Noon. 



Afternoon. 



Evening. 
The Question, What 
good have I done to-day? 



Night. 



Kise, wash, and address Power- 
ful Goodness! Contrive day's 
business and take the resolution 
of the day; prosecute the present 
study and breakfast. 

Work. 



Eead or look over my accounts 
and dine. 



Work. 

Put things in their places. 
Supper. Music or diversion or 
conversation. Examination of 
the day. 



Sleep. 



which, by scraping out the marks on the paper of old 
faults to make room for new ones in a new course, 
became full of holes, I transferred mj tables and 
precepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum book, 
on which the lines were drawn with red ink, that made 
a clUJ^We stain : aA4 Qu those Ixneg I marked my 



BENJAMIN FBANKLIN. 107 

faults with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could 
easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After awhile I 
went through one course only in a year, and afterward 
only one in several years, till at length I omitted them 
entirely, being employed in voyages and business 
abroad with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered ; 
but I always carried my little book with me. 

My scheme of order gave me the most trouble, and 
i found that though it might be practicable where a 
man's business was such as to leave him the disposition 
of his^time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, 
it was not possible to be exactl}^ observed by a master 
who must mix with the world and often receive 
people of business at their own hours. Order, too, 
with regard to places for things, papers, etc., 1 found 
extremely difficult to acquire. I had not been early 
accustomed to method^SiXidi having an exceedingly good 
memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience 
attending want of method. This article, therefore, 
cost me much painful attention, and my faults in it 
vexed me so much, and I m-ade so little progress in 
amendment and had such frequent relapses, that I was 
almost ready to give up the attempt and content my- 
self with a faulty character in that respect. Like the 
man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbor, 
desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as 
the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for 
him if he would turn the wheel ; he turned, while the 
smith pressed the broad face of the ax hard and 
heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it 
very fatiguing. The man came every now and then 
from the wheel to see how the work went on ; and at 
length would take his ax as it was, without further 



f 



108 A UTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

grinding. "No," said the smith, "turn on, turn on, 
we shall have it bright . by and by ; as yet it is only 
speckled.'^ " Yes," said the man, "but / thinh I like 
a Sjpeclded ax hestP^ And I believe this may have been 
the case with many who, having for want of some 
such means as I employed found the difficulty of 
obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other 
points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle 
and concluded that " a specJded ax is hestP For 
something, that pretended to be reason, was every 
now and then suggesting to me that such extreme 
nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of 
foppery in morals which, if it were known, would 
make me ridiculous ; that a perfect character might 
be attended with the inconvenience of being envied 
and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a 
few faults in himself to keep his friends in counte- 
nance. 

In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to 
order; and now I am grown old and my memory bad, 
I feel very sensibly the want of it. But on the whole, 
though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so 
ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I 
was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man 
than I otherwise should have been if I had not 
attempted it ; as those who aim at perfect w^riting by 
imitating the engraved copies, though they never 
reach the wished-for excellence of those copies, their 
hand is mended by the endeavor and is tolerable while 
it continues fair and legible. 

It may be well my posterity should be informed 
that to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, 
their ancestor owed the constant felicity of his life 



BENJAMIN FBANKLm. 109 

down to his seventy-ninth year, in which this is writ- 
ten. What reverses may attend the remainder is in 
the hand of Providence ; but if they arrive, the reflec- 
tion on past happiness enjoyed ought to help his bear- 
ing them with more resignation. To temperance he 
ascribes his long-continued health and what is still 
left to him of a good constitution ; to industry and 
frugality the early easiness of his circumstances and 
acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge that 
enabled him to be a useful citizen and obtained for 
him some degree of reputation among the learned ; to 
sincerity smd justice the confidence of his country and 
the honorable employs it conferred upon him ; and to 
the joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues, 
even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire 
them, all that evenness of temper and that cheerful- 
ness in conversation which makes his company still 
sought for and agreeable even to his young acquaint- 
ance. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants 
may follow the example and reap the benefit. 

It will be remarked that though my scheme was not 
wholly without religion, there was in it no mark of any 
of the distinguishing tenets of any particular sect. I 
had purposely avoided them ; for being fully persuaded 
of the utility and excellency of my method, and that 
it might be serviceable to people in all religions, and 
intending some time or other to publish it, I would 
not have anything in it that should prejudice any one, 
of any sect, against it. I proposed writing a little com- 
ment on each virtue, in which I would have shown the 
advantages of possessing it and the mischiefs attending 
its opposite vice. I should have called my book " The 
Art of Virtue/' because it would have shown the 



110 A UTOBIOGBAPHY OF 

means and manner of obtaining virtue, which would 
have distinguished it from the mere exhortation to be 
good that does not instruct and indicate the means ; 
but is like the apostle's man of verbal charity, who, 
without showing to the naked and hungry how or 
where they might get clothes or victuals, only exhorted 
them to be fed and clothed (James, ii., 15, 16). 

But it so happened that my intention of writing and 
publishing this comment was never fulfilled. I had, 
indeed, from time to time put down short hints of the 
sentiments and reasonings to be made use of in it, some 
of which I have still by me ; but the necessary close 
attention to private business in the earlier part of life 
and public business since have occasioned my post- 
poning it. For, it being connected in my mind 
with a great and extensive project that required the 
whole man to execute and which an unforeseen suc- 
cession of employs prevented my attending to, it has 
hitherto remained unfinished. 

In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce 
this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful he- 
cause they are forbidden^ hut forbidden because they are 
hurtful^ the nature of man alone considered ; that it 
was, therefore, every one's interest to be virtuous who 
wished to be happy even in this world; and I should 
from this circumstance (there being always in the 
world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, 
and princes who have need of honest instruments for 
the management of their affairs, and such being so 
rare) have endeavored to convince young persons that 
no qualities are so likely to make a poor man's fortune 
as those oi probity and %ntegrity. 

My list of virtues contained at first but twelve ; but 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. lU 

a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I 
was generally thought proud, that my pride showed 
itself frequently in conversation, that I was not con- 
tent with being in the right when discussing any 
point, but was overbearing and rather insolent, of 
which he convinced me by mentioning several in- 
stances, I determined to endeavor to cure myself, if I 
could, of this vice or folly among the rest ; and I 
added humility to my list, giving an extensive mean- 
ing to the word. 

I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the 
reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with re- 
gard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to for- 
bear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of 
others and all positive assertion of my own. I even 
forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, 
the use of every word or expression in the language 
that imported a fixed opinion ; such as certainly^ un- 
douhtedly^ etc., and I adopted instead of them, I con- 
ceive^ I Gom/prehend^ or I imagine^ a thing to be so or 
so ; or it so appears to rue at present. When another 
asserted something that I thought an error, I denied 
myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly and 
of showing immediately some absurdity in his propo- 
sition; and in answering I began by observing that in 
certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be 
right, but in the present case there appeared or seemed 
to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advan- 
tage of this change in my manners ; the conversations 
I engaged in went on more pleasantly. The modest 
way in which I proposed my opinions procured them a 
readier reception and less contradiction ; I had less 
mortification when I was found to be in the wrong j 



lis AtlTOBIOGBAPHY OV 

and I more easily prevailed with others to giye up 
their mistakes and join with me when I happened to 
be in the right. 

And this mode, which I at Jfirst put on with some 
violence to natural inclination, became at length easy 
and so habitual to me that perhaps for the last fifty 
years no one has ever heard a dogmatical expression 
escape me. And to this habit (after my character of 
integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early 
so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I pro- 
posed new institutions or alterations in the old ; and 
so much influence in public councils when I became a 
member ; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, 
subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly 
correct in language, and yet I generally carried my 
point. 

In reality there is, perhaps, no one of our natural 
passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, 
struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much as one 
pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then 
peep out and show itself ; you will see it, perhaps, 
often in this history. For even if I could conceive that 
I had completely overcome it, I should probably be 
proud of my hwmMty. 



StJNJAMm FBANKLW. Hg 



CHAPTEE YIL 

Having mentioned a great and extensive project 
which I had conceived, it seems proper that some ac- 
count should be here given of that project and its 
object. Its first rise in my mind appears in the fol- 
lowing little paper, accidentally preserved, viz.: 

** Observations on my reading history in the library, 
May 9th, 1731. 

'' That the great affairs of the world, the wars and revolutions, 
are carried on and effected by parties. 

*' That the view of these parties is their present general in- 
terest, or what they take to be such. 

'* That the different views of these different parties occasion 
all confusion. 

** That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man 
has his particular private interest in view. 

''That as soon as a party has gained its general point, each 
member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, 
thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions and occasions 
more confusion, 

'' That few in public affairs act from a mere view of the good 
of their country, whatever they may pretend; and though their 
actings bring real good to their country, yet men primarily con- 
sidered that their own and their country's interest were united, 
and so did not act from a principle of benevolence. 

'* That fewer still in public affairs act with a view to the good 
of mankind. 

" There seems to m'e at present to be great occasion for raising 
a united party for virtue, by forming the virtuous and good men 
of all nations into a regular body, to be governed by suitably 



114 AVTOBIOGRAPBY OP 

good and wise rules, which good and wise men may probably be 
more unanimous in their obedience to than common people are 
to common laws. 

'* I at present think that whoever attempts this aright and 
is well qualified cannot fail of pleasing God and of meeting with 
success." 

Eevolving this project in my mind as to be under- 
taken hereafter, when my circumstances should aflford 
me the necessary leisure, I put down from time to 
time on pieces of paper such thoughts as occurred to 
me respecting it. Most of these are lost ; but I find 
one purporting to be the substance of an intended 
creed, containing, as I thought, the essentials of every 
known religion, and being free of everything that 
might shock the professors of any religion. It is ex- 
pressed in these words, viz.: 

*' That there is one God, who made all things. 

*' That he governs the world by his providence. 

*' That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and 
thanksgiving. 

** But that the most acceptable service to God is doing good to 
man. 

** That the soul is immortal. 

" And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, 
either here or hereafter. " 

My ideas at that time were that the sect should be 
begun and spread at first among young and single 
men only ; that each person to be initiated should 
not onlv declare his assent to such creed, but should 
have exercised himself with the thirteen weeks' ex- 
amination and practice of the virtues, as in the before- 
mentioned model ; that the existence of such a society 
should be kept a secret till it was become considerable, 



hSMAMIN FRANKLIN, llg 

to prevent solicitations for the admission of improper 
persons; but that the members should, each of them, 
search among his acquaintance* for ingenious, well- 
disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution, the 
scheme should be gradually communicated. That the 
members should engage to afford their advice, assist- 
ance, and support to each other in promoting one 
another's interest, business, and advancement in life. 
That for distinction we should be called the Society 
or THE Free and Easy. Free, as being, by the general 
practice and habits of the virtues, free from the 
dominion of vice ; and particularly, by the practice of 
industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes 
a man to constraint and a species of slavery to his 
creditors. 

This is as much as I can now recollect of the proj- 
ect, except that I communicated it in part to two 
young men who adopted it with some enthusiasm ; 
but my then narrow circumstances and the necessity 
I was under of sticking close to my business occasioned 
my postponing the further prosecution of it at that 
time, and my multifarious occupations, public and 
private, induced me to continue postponing, so that 
it has been omitted till I have no longer strength or 
activity left sufficient for such an enterprise. . Though 
I am still of opinion it w^as a practicable scheme, and 
might have been very useful by forming a great 
number of good citizens, and I was not discouraged 
by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I 
have always thought that one man of tolerable abili- 
ties may work great changes and accomplish great 
affairs among mankind if he first forms a good plan, 
and cutting off all amusements or other employments 



116 AXl^OBIoaBAPHT OP 

that would divert his attention, makes the execution 
of that same plan his sole study and business. 

In 1732 I first published my almanac, under the 
name of Richard Saunders ; it was continued by 
me about twenty-five years and commonly called 
" Poor Richard's Almanac." I endeavored to make 
it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly 
came to be in such demand that I reaped considerable 
profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand. 
And observing that it was generally read, scarce any 
neighborhood in the province being without it, I 
considered it as a proper vehicle for conveying in- 
struction among the common people, who bought 
scarcely any other books. I therefore filled all the 
little spaces that occurred between the remarkable 
days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly 
such as inculcated industry and frugality as the means 
of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it 
being more difiicult for a man in want to act always 
honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is 
hard for an empty sack to stand upright. 

These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of 
many ages and nations, I assembled and formed into 
a connected discourse prefixed to the almanac of 1757 
as the harangue of a wise old man to the people 
attending an auction. The bringing all these scattered 
counsels thus into a focus enabled them to make 
greater impression. The piece, being universally 
approved, was copied in all the newspapers of the 
American continent, reprinted in Britain on a large 
sheet of paper to be stuck up in houses ; two trans- 
lations were made of it in France, and great numbers 
bought by the clergy and gentry to distribute gratis 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIK 11? 

among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Penn- 
sylvania, as it discouraged useless expense in foreign 
superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence 
in producing that growing plenty of money which 
was observable for several years after its publica- 
tion. 

I considered my newspaper also as another means 
of communicating instruction, and in that view fre- 
quently reprinted in it extracts from the Spectator and 
other moral writers, and sometimes published little 
pieces of my own, which had been first composed for 
reading in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dia- 
logue tending to prove that whatever might be his 
parts and abilities, a vicious man could not properly 
be called a man of sense ; and a discourse on self- 
denial, showing that virtue was not secure till its 
practice became a habitude and was free from the 
opposition of contrarj^ inclinations. These may be 
found in the papers about the beginning of 1735. 

In the conduct of my newspaper I carefully ex- 
cluded all libeling and personal abuse, which is of late 
years become so disgraceful to our country. When- 
ever I was solicited to insert anything of that kind 
and the writers pleaded, as they generally did, the 
liberty of the press — and that a newspaper was like a 
stage-coach, in which any one who would pay had a 
right to a place — my answer was that I would print the 
piece separately if desired, and the author might 
have as many copies as he pleased to distribute him- 
self, but that I would not take upon me to spread his 
detraction, and that having contracted with my sub- 
scribers to furnish them with what might be either 
wseful or entertaining, I could not fill their paperg 



118 AtTTOBIOGRAPBT OP 

with private altercation, in which they had no concern, 
without doing them manifest injustice. Now many 
of our printers make no scruple of gratifying the 
malice of individuals by false accusations of the fairest 
characters among ourselves, augmenting animosity 
even to the producing of duels ; and are, moreover, so 
indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on the 
government of neighboring States, and even on the 
conduct of our best national allies, which may be at- 
tended with the most pernicious consequences. These 
things I mention as a caution to young printers, and 
that they may be encouraged not to pollute their 
presses and disgrace their profession by such infamous 
practices, but refuse steadily ; as they may see by my 
example that such a course of conduct will not on the 
whole be injurious to their interests. 

In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, 
South Carolina, where a printer was wanting. I 
furnished him with a press and letters on an agree- 
ment of partnership, by which I was to receive one- 
third of the profits of the business, paying one-third 
of the expense. He was a man of lea?^ning, but 
ignorant in matters of account ; and though he some- 
times made me remittances, I could get no account 
from him, nor any satisfactory state of our partner- 
ship while he lived. On his decease the business 
was continued by his widow, who, being born and 
bred m Holland, where, as I have been informed, the 
knowledge of accounts makes a part of female educa- 
tion, she not only sent me as clear a statement as she 
could find of the transactions past, but continued to 
account with the greatest regularity and exactness 
every quarter afterward, and managed the business 



BENJAMIN FRANKLm. 119 

■with such success that she not only reputably brought 
up a family of children, but at the expiration of the 
term was able to purchase of *me the printing-house 
and establish her son in it. 

I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recom- 
mending that branch of education for our young 
women as likely to be of more use to them and their 
children, in case of widowhood, than either music or 
dancing ; by preserving them from losses by imposi- 
tion of crafty men and enabling them to continue, 
perhaps, a profitable mercantile house, with estab- 
lished correspondence, till a son is grown up fit to 
undertake and go on with it, to the lasting advantage 
and enriching of the family. 

About the vear 1734 there arrived amono^ us a voun^i: 
Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, who de- 
livered with a good voice, and apparently extempore, 
most excellent discourses, which drew together con- 
siderable numbers of different persuasions, who joined 
in admiring them. Among the rest I became one of 
his constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they 
had little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated 
strongly the practice of virtue, or what in the re- 
ligious style are called good vjorhs. Those, however, 
of our congregation who considered themselves as 
orthodox Presbyterians disapproved his doctrine, and 
were joined by most of the old ministers, who 
arraigned him of heterodoxy before the synod, in 
order to have him silenced. I became his zealous 
partisan, and contributed all I could to raise a party 
in his favor and combated for him awhile -with some 
hopes of success. There was much ^cnhblmg pro and 
con upon the occasion, and finding that though an 



120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY off 

elegant preacher he was but a poor writer, I wrote 
for him two or three pamphlets and a piece in the 
Oazeite of April, 1735. Those pamphlets, as is 
generally the case with controversial writings, though 
eagerly read at the time, were soon out of vogue, and 
I question whether a single copy of them now exists. 

During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his 
cause exceedingly. One of our adversaries having 
heard him preach a sermon that was much admired, 
thought he had somewhere read the sermon before, or 
at least a part of it. On searching, he found that part 
quoted at length in one of the British reviews from a 
discourse of Dr. Foster's. This defection gave many 
of our party disgust, who accordingly abandoned his 
cause and occasioned our niore speedy discomfiture in 
the synod. I stuck by him, however. I rather ap- 
proved his giving us good sermons composed by others 
than bad ones of his own manufacture, though the 
latter was the practice of our common teachers. He 
afterward acknowledged to me that none of those he 
preached were his own, adding that his memory was 
such as enabled him to retain and repeat any sermon 
after once reading only. On our defeat he left us in 
search elsewhere of better fortune, and I quitted the 
congregation, never attending it after, though I con- 
tinued many years my subscription for the support of 
its ministers. 

I had begun in 1733 to study languages. I soon made 
myself so much a master of the French as to be able 
to read the books in that language with ease. I then 
undertook the Italian. An acquaintance who was 
also learning it used often to tempt me to play chess 
with him. Finding this took up too much of the time 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 121 

I had to spare for study, I at length refused to' play 
any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in 
every game should have a right to impose a task, either 
of parts of the grammar, to be got by heart, or in 
translations, which tasks the vanquished was to per- 
form upon honor before our next meeting. As we 
played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into 
that language. I afterward, with a little painstaking, 
acquired as much of the Spanish as to read their books 
also. 

I have already mentioned that I had only one year's 
instruction in a Latin school, and that when very 
young, after which I neglected that language entirely. 
But when I had attained an acquaintance with the 
' French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surprised to find, 
on looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood 
more of that language than I had imagined; which 
encouraged me to apply myself again to the study of it, 
and I met with more success, as those preceding Ian- 
guages had greatly smoothed my way. 

From these circumstances I have thought there is 
some inconsistency in our common mode of teaching 
languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first 
with the Latin, and having acquired that it will be 
more easy to attain those modern languages which are 
derived from it ; and yet we do not begin with the 
Greek in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is 
true that if we can clamber and get to the top of a 
staircase without using the steps, we shall more easily 
gain them in descending; but certainly. if we begin 
with the lowest we shall with more ease ascend to the 
top ; and I would therefore oflfer it to the considera- 
tion of those who superintend the education of our 



133 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF . *v 

youth whether, since many of those who begin with 
the Latin quit the same after spending some j'^ears with- 
out having made any great proficiency, and what they 
have learned becomes almost useless, so that their 
time has been lost, it would not have been better to 
have began with the French, proceeding to the Italian 
and Latin. For though after spending the same time 
they should quit the study of languages and never 
arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have acquired 
another tongue or two that, being in modern use, 
might be serviceable to them in common life. 

After ten years' absence from Boston, and having 
become easy in my circumstances, I made a journey 
thither to visit my relations, which I could not sooner 
afford. In returning I called at JSTewport to see my 
brother James, then settled there with his printing- 
house. Our former differences were forgotten and our 
meeting was very cordial and affectionate. He was 
fast declining in health, and requested me that in case 
of his death, which he apprehended was not far distant, 
I would take home his son, then but ten years of age, 
and bring him up to the printing business. This I 
accordingly performed, sending him a few years to 
schoo' before I took him into the office. His mother 
carried on the business till he was grown up, when I 
assisted him with an assortment of new types, those of 
his father being in a manner worn out. Thus it was 
that I made my brother ample amends for the service 
1 had deprived him of by leaving him so early. 

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four 
years old, by small-pox, taken in the common way. I 
long regretted him bitterly and still regret that I had 
not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 123 

for the sake of parents who omit that operation on the 
supposition that they should never forgive themselves 
if a child died under it, my example showing that the 
regret may be the same either way, and therefore that 
the safer should be chosen. 

Our club, the Junto, was found so useful and afforded 
such satisfaction to the members that some were de- 
sirous of introducing their friends, which could not 
well be done without exceeding what we had settled 
as a convenient number, viz., twelve. AVe had from 
the beginning made it a rule to keep our institution a 
secret, which was pretty well observed ; the intention 
was to avoid applications of improper persons for admit- 
tance, some of whom, perhaps, we might find it diffi- 
cult to refuse. I was one of those who were against 
any addition to our number, but instead of it made in 
writing a proposal that every member separately 
should endeavor to form a subordinate club, with the 
same rules respecting queries, etc., and without inform- 
ing them of the connection with the Junto. The 
advantages proposed were the improvement of so many 
more young citizens by the use of our institutions ; 
our better acquaintance with the general sentiments of 
the inhabitants on any occasion, as the Junto member 
might propose what queries we should desire and was 
to report to the Junto what passed at his separate 
club ; the promotion of our particular interests in busi- 
ness by more extensive recommendation, and the 
increase of our influence in public affairs, and our 
power of doing good by spreading through the several 
clubs the sentiments of the Junto. 

Tbe project was approved, and every member under- 
took to form his club ; but they did not all succeed. 



124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

Five or six only were completed, which were called 
by different names, as the Vine^ the TJnion^ the Band, 
They were useful to themselves and afforded us a good 
deal of amusement, information, and instruction; 
besides answering, in some considerable degree, our 
views of influencing the public on particular occasions, 
of which I shall give instances in course of time as 
they happened. 

My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736, 
clerk of the General Assembly. The choice was 
made that year without opposition ; but the year 
following, when I was again proposed (the choice, like 
that of the members, being annual), a new member 
made a long speech against me in order to favor some 
other candidate. I was, however, chosen, which was 
the more agreeable to me, as, besides the pay for the 
immediate service of clerk, the place gave me an 
opportunity of keeping up an interest among the 
members, which secured to me the business of printing 
the votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional 
jobs for the public that, on the whole, were very 
profitable. 

I therefore did not like the opposition of this new 
member, who was a gentleman of fortune and educa- 
tion, with talents that were likely to give him in time 
great influence in the House, which indeed afterward 
happened. I did not, however, aim at gaining his 
favor by paying any servile respect to him, but after 
some time took this other method. Having heard 
that he had in his library a certain very scarce and 
curious book, I wrote a note to him expressing my 
desire of perusing that book and requesting that he 
would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 125 

days. He seat it immediately ; and I returned it in 
about a week with another note expressing strongly 
the sense of the favor. When we next met in the 
House he spoke to me, which he had never done 
before, and with great civility ; and he ever after 
manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, 
so that we became great friends, and our friendship 
continued tohis death. This is another instance of 
the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says : 
''He that has once done you a Icindness will he more 
ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have 
oMigedP And it shows how much more profitable it 
is prudently to remove than to resent, return, and 
continue inimical proceedings. 

In 1737 Colonel Spotswood, late Governor of 
Virginia and then Postmaster-General, being dis- 
satisfied with the conduct of his deputy at Philadelphia 
respecting some negligence in rendering and want of 
exactness in framing his accounts, took from him the 
commission and offered it to me. I accepted it readily 
and found it of great advantage ; for though the salary 
was small, it facilitated the correspondence that im- 
proved my newspaper, increased the number de- 
manded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, 
so that it came to afford me a considerable income. 
My old competitor's newspaper declined proportion- 
ably, and I was satisfied without retaliating his refusal, 
while postmaster, to permit my papers being carried 
by the riders. Thus he suffered greatly from his 
neglect in due accounting; and I mention it as a lesson 
to those young men who may be employed in manag- 
ing affairs for others, that they should always render 
accounts and make remittances with great clearness 



136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

and punctuality. The character of observing such a 
conduct is the most powerful of all recommendations 
to new employments and increase of business. 

I began now to turn my thoughts to public affairs, 
beginning, however, with small matters. The city 
watch was one of the first things that I conceived to 
want regulation. It was managed by the constables 
of the respective wards in turn ; the constable sum- 
moned a number of housekeepers to attend him for the 
night. Those who chose never to attend paid him six 
shillings a year to be excused, which was supposed to 
go to hiring substitutes, but was in reality much more 
than was necessary for that purpose, and made the 
constableship a place of profit ; and the constable, 
for a little drink, often got such ragamuffins about 
him as a watch that respectable housekeepers did not 
choose to mix with. Walking the rounds, too, was 
often neglected, and most of the nights spent in 
tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper, to be read in 
the Junto, representing these irregularities, but insist- 
ing more particularly on the inequality of the six- 
shilling tax of the constable, respecting the circum- 
stances of those who paid it ; since a poor widow 
housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by the 
watch did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty 
pounds, paid as much as the wealthiest merchant, who 
had thousands of pounds' worth of goods in his stores. 

On the whole, I proposed, as a more effectual watch, 
the hiring of proper men to serve constantly in the 
business, and as a more equitable way of supporting 
the charge, the levying a tax that should be propor- 
tioned to the property. This idea being approved by 
the Junto wa^s oornmumqated to the other clubs^ but as 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. VZl 

originating in each of them ; and though the plan was 
not immediately carried into exjecution, yet by pre- 
paring the minds of people for the change it paved the 
way for the law obtained a few years after, when the 
members of our club were grown into more influence. 
About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in 
the Junto, but it was afterward published) on the dif- 
ferent accidents and carelessnesses by which houses 
were set on fire, with cautions against them and means 
proposed of avoiding them. This was spoken of as a 
useful piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon 
followed it, of forming a company for the more ready 
extinguishing of fires and mutual assistance in remov- 
ing and securing of goods when in danger. Associates 
in this scheme were presently found amounting to 
thirty. Our articles of agreement obliged every 
member to keep always in good order and fit for use a 
certain number of leathern buckets, with strong bags 
and baskets (for packing and transporting of goods), 
which were to be brought to every fire, and we agreed, 
about once a month, to spend a social evening to- 
gether, in discoursing and communicating such ideas 
as occurred to us upon the subject of fires as might be 
seful in our conduct on such occasions. 
The utility of this institution soon appeared, and 
many more desiring to be admitted than we thought 
convenient for one company they were advised to 
form another, which was accordingly done, and thus 
went on one new company after another till they be- 
came so numerous as to include most of the inhabitants 
who were men of- property, and now at the time of 
my writing this, though upward of fifty years since its 
establishment, that which I first formed, called the 



128 -4 tJTOBIOGRAPHT OF 

Union Fire Company, still subsists, though the first 
members are all deceased but one, who is older by a 
year than I am. The fines that have been paid by 
members for absence at the monthly meetings have 
been applied to the purchase of fire-engines, ladders, 
fire-hooks, and other useful implements for each com- 
pan}^ ; so that I question whether there is a city in the 
world better provided with the means of putting a 
stop to beginning conflagrations, and, in fact, since 
these institutions the city has never lost by fire more 
than one or two houses at a time, and the flames have 
often been extinguished before the house in which 
they began has been half consumed. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 139 



CHAPTEK VIII. 

In 1739, arrived among us from Ireland the Kever- 
end Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable 
there as an itinerant preacher. He was at first per- 
mitted to preach in some of our churches ; but the 
clergy taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their 
pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields. 
The multitudes of all sects and denominations that at- 
tended his sermons were enormous, and it was a 
matter of speculation to me, who was one of the num- 
ber, to observe the extraordinary influence of his 
oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired 
and respected him, notwithstanding his common 
abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally 
half leasts and half devils. It was wonderful to see 
the change soon made in the manners of our inhabit- 
ants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about 
religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing 
religious, so that one could not walk through the town 
in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different 
families of every street. 

And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the 
open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a 
house to meet in was no sooner proposed, and persons 
appointed to receive contributions, than sufficient sums 
were soon received to procure the ground and erect 
the building, which was one hundred feet long and 



130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

seventy broad; and the work was carried on with 
such spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time 
than could have been expected. Both house and 
ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use 
of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might 
desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia, 
the design in building being not to accommodate any 
particular sect, but the inhabitants in general ; so that 
even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a 
missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would 
find a pulpit at his service. 

Mr. Whitefleld, on leaving us, went preaching all 
the way through the colonies to Georgia. The settle- 
ment of that province had been lately begun,, but in- 
stead of being made with hardy, industrious husband- 
men accustomed to labor, the only people fit for such 
an enterprise, it was with families of broken shop- 
keepers and other insolvent debtors ; many of indolent 
and idle habits, taken out of the jails, who, being set 
down in the woods, unqualified for clearing land and 
unable to endure the hardships of a new settlement, 
perished in numbers, leaving many helpless children 
unprovided for. The sight of their miserable situation 
inspired the benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield with 
the idea of building an orphan house there, in which 
they might be supported and educated. Returning 
northward, he preached up this charity and made 
large collections ; for his eloquence had a wonderful 
power over the hearts and purses of his hearers, of 
which I myself was an instance. 

I did not disapprove of the design, but as Georgia 
was then destitute of materials and workmen and it 
was proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. I3l 

great expense, I thought it would have been better to 
have built the house at Philadelphia and brought the 
children to it. This I advised ; but he was resolute in 
his first project, rejected my counsel, and I therefore 
refused to contribute. I happened soon after to attend 
one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived 
he intended to finish with a collection, and I silentiy 
resolved that he should get nothing from me. I had 
in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four 
silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded 
I began to soften and concluded to give the copper. 
Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of 
that and determined me to give the silver ; and he 
finished so admirably that I emptied my pocket 
wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all. At this 
sermon there was also one of our club who, being of 
my sentiments respecting the building in Georgia and 
suspecting a collection might be intended, had by pre- 
caution emptied his pockets before he came from home. 
Toward the conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt 
a strong inclination to give, and applied to a neighbor 
who stood near him to lend him some money for the 
purpose. The request was fortunately made to per- 
haps the only man in the company who had the firm- 
ness not to be affected by the preacher. His answer 
was, " At any other time, friend Hopkinson, I would 
lend to thee freely, but not now, for thee seems to be 
out of thy right senses." 

Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to sup- 
pose that he would apply these collections to his own 
private emolument ; but I, Avho was intimately ac- 
quainted with him, being employed in printing his 
sermons and journals, never had the least suspicion of 



132 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 

his integrity, but am to this day decidedly of opinion 
that he was in all his conduct a perfectly honest 7nan; 
and methinks my testimony in his favor ought to have 
the more weight, as we had no religious connection. 
He used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conver= 
sion, but he never had the satisfaction of believing 
that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere civil 
friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted to his 
death. 

The following instance will show the terms on 
which we stood. Upon one of his arrivals from Eng- 
land at Boston he wrote to me that he should come 
soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could 
lodge when there, as he understood his old friend and 
host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to Germantown. My 
answer was: "You know my house; if you can make 
shift with its scanty accommodations, you will be most 
heartily welcome." He replied that if I made that 
kind offer for Chrisfs sake I should not miss of a re- 
ward. And I returned : " Don't let me be mistaken ; 
it was not for Ghrisfs sake, but for your sake." One 
of our common acquaintance jocosely remarked that 
knowing it to be the custom of the saints when they 
received any favor to shift the burden of the obligation 
from off their own shoulders and place it in heaven, I 
had contrived to fix it on earth. 

The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, 
when he consulted me about his orphan house concern 
and his purpose of appropriating it to the establish- 
ment of a college. 

He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his 
words so perfectly that he might be heard and under- 
Stood at a great distance, especially as his auditors 



iBENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 133 

observed the most perfect silence. He preached one 
evening from the top of the court-house steps, which 
are in the middle of Market Street and on the west 
side of Second Street, which crosses it at right angles. 
Both streets were filled with his hearers to a consider- 
able distance. Being among the hindmost in Market 
Street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could 
be heard by retiring backward down the street toward 
the river ; and I found his voice distinct till I came 
near Front Street, when some noise in that street 
obscured it. Imagining then a semicircle, of which 
my distance should be the radius, and that it w^s 
filled with auditors, to each of whom I allowed two 
square feet, I computed that he might well be heard 
by more than thirty thousand. This reconciled me to 
the newspaper accounts of his having preached to 
twenty-five thousand people in the fields, and to the 
history of generals haranguing whole armies, of which 
I had sometimes doubted.^ 

By hearing him often I came to distinguish easily 
between sermons newly composed and those which he 

* In the early part of his life Mr. Whitefield was preaching in 
an open field, when a drummer happened to be present who was 
determined to interrupt his pious business, and rudely beat his 
drum in a violent manner in order to drown the preacher's voice. 
Mr. Whitefield spoke very loud, but was not as powerful as the 
instrument. He therefore called out to the drummer in these 
words : * ' Friend, you and I serve the two greatest masters 
existing, but in different callings; you beat up for volunteers for 
King George, I for the Lord Jesus. In God's name, then, let us 
not interrupt each other; the world is wide enough for both, and 
we may get recruits in abundance." This speech had such an 
effect on the drummer that he went away in great good humor, 
^nd left the preacher in full possession of the field. 



1^4 AtrfOBIOGEAPHY OP 

had often preached in the course of his travels. His 
delivery of the latter was so improved by frequent 
repetition that every accent, every emphasis, every 
modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and 
well placed that without being interested in the 
subject one could not help being pleased with the 
discourse ; a pleasure of much the same kind with that 
received from an excellent piece of music. This is an 
advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are 
stationary, as the latter cannot well improve their 
delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals. 

His writing and printing from time to time gave 
great advantage to his enemies ; unguarded expressions, 
and even erroneous opinions, delivered in preaching 
might have been afterward explained or qualified by 
supposing others that might have accompanied them ; 
or they might have been denied ; but litera scripta 
manet Critics attacked his writings violently, and 
with so much appearance of reason as to diminish 
the number of his votaries and prevent their increase. 
So that I am satisfied that if he had never written 
anything he would have left behind him a much 
more numerous and important sect ; and his reputa- 
ion might in that case have been still growing 
jven after his death, as there being nothing of his 
writing on which to found a censure and give him a 
lower character, his proselytes would be left at liberty 
to attribute to him as great a variety of excellences as 
their enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have 
possessed. 

My business was now constantly augmenting and 
my circumstance growing daily easier, my newspaper 
having become very profitable, as being for a time 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 136 

almost the only one in this and the neighboring 
provinces. I experienced, too. the truth of the obser- 
vation that "after getting the first hundred pounds it is 
more easy to get the second i'^^ money itself being of a 
prolific nature. 

The partnership at Carolina having succeeded, I was 
encouraged to engage in others and to promote several 
of my workmen, who had behaved well, by establish 
ing them in printing-houses in different colonies, on 
the same terms with that in Carolina. Most of them 
did well, being enabled at the end of our term, six 
years, to purchase the types of me and go on working 
for themselves, by which means several families were 
raised. Partnerships often finish in quarrels ; but I 
was happy in this, that mine were all carried on and 
ended amicably, owing, 1 think, a good deal to the 
precaution of having very explicitly settled in our 
articles everything to be done by or expected from 
each partner, so that there was nothing to dispute, 
which precaution I would therefore recommend to all 
"who enter into partnerships ; for whatever esteem 
partners may have for and confidence in each other at 
the time of the contract, little jealousies and disgusts 
may arise, with ideas of inequality in the care and 
burden, business, etc., which are attended oiten with 
breach of friendship and of the connection, perhaps 
with lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences. 

I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied 
with my being established in Pennsylvania. There 
were, hov/ever, some things that I regretted, there 
being no provision for defense nor for a complete 
education of youth ; no militia nor any college. I 
therefore, in 1743, drew up a proposal for establishing^ 



136 AUT0BI0QBAPH7 OF 

an academy ; and at that time, thinking the Rev, 
Eichard Peters, who was out of employ, a fit person 
to superintend such an institution, I communicated 
the project to him ; but he, having more profitable 
views in the service of the proprietors, which suc- 
ceeded, declined the undertaking, and not knowing 
another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the 
scheme lie awhile dormant. I succeeded better the 
next year. 1744, in proposing and establishing a philo- 
sophical society. The paper I wrote for that purpose 
will be found among my writings, if not lost with 
many others. 

With respect to defense, Spain having been several 
years at war against Great Britain and being at 
length joined by France, which brought us into great 
danger, and the labored and long-continued endeavor 
of our governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker 
Assembly to pass a militia law and make other pro- 
visions for the security of the province having proved 
abortive, I proposed to try what might be done by a 
voluntary subscription of the people. To promote 
this I first wrote and published a pamphlet, en- 
titled " Plain Truth," in which I stated our helpless 
situation in strong lights, with the necessity of union 
and discipline for our defense, and promised to pro- 
pose in a few days an association, to be generally 
signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had a sudden 
and surprising effect. I was called upon for the in- 
strument of association. Having settled the draft of 
it with a few friends, I appointed a meeting of the 
citizens in the large building before mentioned. The 
house was pretty full. I had prepared a number of 
printed copies and provided pens and ink dispersed all 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 137 

over the room ; I harangued them a little on the- sub- 
ject, read the paper, explained it, and then distributed 
the copies, which were eagerly, signed, not the least 
objection being made. 

When the company separated and the papers were 
collected, w^e found about twelve hundred signatures ; 
and other copies being dispered in the country, the 
subscribers - amounted at length to upward of ten 
thousand. These all furnished themselves as soon as 
they could with arms, formed themselves into com- 
panies and regiments, chose their own oflBLcers, and 
met every week to be instructed in the manual exercise 
and other parts of military discipline. The women, 
by subscriptions among themselves, provided silk 
colors, which the}^ presented to the companies, painted 
with different devices and mottoes, which I supplied."^ 

* The following are the devices and mottoes, as published at 
the time: 

1. A lion erect, a naked cimeter in one paw, the other holding 
the Pennsylvania scutcheon. Motto: Patria. 

2. Three arms, wearing different linen, ruffled, plain, and 
checked, the hands joined by grasping each other's wrist, denot- 
ing the union of all ranks. Motto: TJnita Virtus Valet. 

3. An eagle, the emblem of victory, descending from the skies. 
Motto: A Deo Victoina. 

4. The figure of Liberty sitting on a cube, holding"a spear with 
the cap of Freedom on its point. Motto: Inestlmabilis. 

5. An armed man with a naked falchion in his hand. Motto: 
Deus adjuvat Fortes. 

6. An elephant, being the emblem of a warrior always on his 
guard, as that creature is said never to lie down and hath his 
arms ever in readiness. Motto: Semper Paratus, 

7. A city walled round. Motto: Salus Patrice Stcmma Lex. 

8. A soldier with his piece recovered, ready to present. Motto: 
Sic pacem qtuerimus^ 



138 A UTOBIOQBAPHY OF 

The oflScers of the companies composing the Phil- 
adelphia regiment being met, chose me for their colonel, 
but conceiving myself unfit I declined that station and 
recommended Mr. Lawrence, a fine person and a man 
of influence, who was accordingly appointed. I then 
proposed a lottery to defray the expense of building a 
battery below the town and furnished with cannon. 
It filled expeditiously and the battery was soon erected, 
the merlons being framed of logs and filled with earth. 
We bought some old cannon from Boston; but these 
not being sufficient, we wrote to London for more, 
soliciting at the same time our proprietaries for some 
assistance, though without much expectation of ob- 
taining it. 

9. A coronet and plume of feathers. Motto: In God we trust. 

10. A man with a sword drawn. Motto: Pro Avis et Foeis, 

11. Three of the associators, marching with their muskets 
shouldered and dressed in different clothes, intimating the 
unanimity of the different sorts of people in the association. 
Motto: Vis Unita Fortior. 

12. A musket and sword crossing each other. Motto: Pro 
Rege et Grege. 

13. Representation of a glory, in the middle of which is wrote, 
Jehovah Njssi; in English, The Lord our Banner. 

14. A castle, at the gate of which a soldier stands sentinel. 
Motto: Cavendo Tutus, 

15. David, as he advanced against Goliath and slung the stone. 
Motto: In Nomine Domini. 

16. A lion rampant, one paw holding up a cimeter, another a 
sheaf of wheat. Motto: Domine Protege Alimentum. 

17. A sleeping lion. Motto: Rou^e me if you dare. 

18. Hope, represented by a woman, standing clothed in blue, 
holding one hand on an anchor. Motto: Spero per Deum Vincere. 

19. Duke of Cumberland as a general. Motto: Pro Deo et 
Georgio Rege. 

^0, A sailor orx horseback. Motto: Pro Lil/^tate Patriae, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 139 

Meanwhile Colonel Lawrence, Mr. Allan, Abraham 
Taylor, and myself were sent to New York by the 
associators, commissioned to borrow some cannon of 
Governor Clinton. Pie at first refused us peremptorily; 
but at a dinner with his Council, where there was 
great drinking of Madeira wine, as the custom of that 
pla,ce then was, he softened b}^ degrees and said he 
would lend ns six. After a few more bumpers he ad 
vanced to ten, and at length he very good-naturedly 
conceded eighteen. They were fine cannon, eighteen- 
pounders, with their carriages, which were soon trans- 
ported and mounted on our batteries, where the asso- 
ciators kept a nightly guard while the war lasted, and 
among the rest I regularly took my turn of duty there 
ias a common soldier. 

My activity in these operations was agreeable to the 
governor and Council ; they took me into confidence 
and I was consulted by them in every measure where 
their concurrence was thought useful to the associa- 
tion. Calling in the aid of religion, I proposed to 
them the proclaiming a fast, to promote reformation 
and implore the blessing of Heaven on our undertak- 
ing. They embraced the motion ; but as it was the 
first fast ever thought of in the province, the secretary 
had no precedent from which to draw the proclama- 
tion. My education in New England, where a fast is 
proclaimed every year, was here of some advantage. I 
drew it in the accustomed style ; it was translated into 
German, printed in both languages, and circulated 
through the province. This gave the clergy of the 
different sects an opportunity of influencing their con- 
gregations to join the association, and it would prob- 
ably have been general among all but the Quakers if 
the peace had not soon intervened. 



140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

It was thought by some of ray friends that by my 
activity in these affairs I should offend that sect, and 
thereby lose my interest in the Assembly of the 
province, where they formed a great majority. A 
young man, who had likewise some friends in the 
Assembly and wished to succeed me as their clefk, ac- 
quainted me that it was decided to displace me at the 
next election ; and he, through good will, advised me 
to resign as more consistent with my honor than being 
turned out. My answer to him was that I had read or 
heard of some public man who made it a rule never 
to ask for an office and never to refuse one when 
offered to him. " I approve,'' said I, " of this rule, 
and shall practice it with a small addition : I shall 
never ash^ never refuse^ nor ever resign an office. 
If they will have my office of clerk to dispose of 
it to another, they shall take it from me. I will 
not, by giving it up, lose my right of some time or 
other making reprisal on my adversaries." I heard^ 
however, no more of this ; I was chosen again unani- 
mously as clerk at the next election. . Possibly, as they 
disliked my late intimacy with the members of the 
Council who had joined the governors in all the disputes 
about military preparations with which the House had 
long been harassed, they might have been pleased if I 
would voluntarily have left them ; but they did not 
care to displace me on account merely of my zeal 
for the association, and they could not well give 
another reason. 

Indeed, I had some cause to believe that the defense 
of the country was not disagreeable to any of them, 
provided they were not required to assist in it. And 
I found that a much greater number of them than I 



BENJAMIN F-RANKLm. 141 

could have imagined, though against offensive war, 
were clearlj^ for the defensive. Many pamphlets pro 
and eon were published on the subject, and some by 
good Quakers, in favor of defense; which, I believe, 
convinced most of their young people. 

A transaction in our fire company gave me some 
insight into their prevailing sentiments. It had been 
proposed that we should encourage the scheme for 
building a battery by laying out the present stock, 
then about sixty pounds, in tickets of the lottery. By 
our rules no money could be disposed of till the next 
meeting after the proposal. The company consisted 
of thirty members, of whom twenty-two were Quakers 
and eight only of other persuasions. We eight punc- 
tually attended the meetings, but though we thought 
some of the Quakers would join us, we were by no 
means sure of a majority. Only one Quaker, Mr. James 
Morris, appeared to oppose the measure. He expressed 
much sorrow that it had ever been proposed, as he said 
Friends were all against it, and it would create such 
discord as might break up the company. We told him 
that we saw no reason for that ; we were the minority, 
and if Friends were against the measure and outvoted 
us, we must and should, agreeably to the usage of all 
societies, submit. When the hour for business arrived 
it was moved to put this to the vote ; he allowed we 
might do it by the rule, but as he could assure us that 
a number of members intended to be present for the 
purpose of opposing it, it would be but candid to allow 
a little time for their appearing. 

While we were disputing this a waiter came to tell 
me that two gentlemen below desired to speak with 
me, I went down and found there two of our Quaker 



142 AUTOBIOGBAPHT OF 

members. They told me there were eight of them 
assembled at a tavern jhst by; that they were deter- 
mined to come and vote with us if there should be 
occasion, which they hoped would not be the case, and 
desired we would not call for their assistance if we 
could do without it, as their voting for such a measure 
might embroil them with their elders and friends, 
Being thus secure of a majority, I went up, and after 
a little seeming hesitation agreed to a delay of anothe- 
hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be extremely faii\ 
Not one of his opposing friends appeared, at which he 
expressed great surprise, and at the expiration of the 
hour we carried the resolution eight to one ; and as of 
the twenty-two Quakers eight were ready to vote with 
us and thirteen by their absence manifested that they 
were not inclined to oppose the measure, I afterward 
estimated the proportion of Quakers sincerely against 
defense as one to twenty-one only. For these were 
all regular members of the society and in good 
reputation among them, and who had notice of what 
was proposed at that meeting. 

The honorable and learned Mr. Logan, who had 
always been of that sect, wrote an address to them, 
declaring his approbation of defensive war, and 
supported his opinion by many strong arguments. He 
put into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out in 
lottery tickets for the battery, with directions to apply 
what prizes might be drawn wholly to that service. 
He told me the following anecdote of his old master, 
William Penn, respecting defense. He came over 
from England when a young man with that proprie- 
tary, and as his secretary. It was war time, and their 
ship was chased by an armed vessel, supposed to be an 



MNJAMIN FRANKLIN. l43 

enemy. Their captain prepared for defense, but told 
William Penn and his companjir of Quakers that he 
did not expect their assistance, and they might retire 
into the cabin, which they did, except James Logan, 
who chose to stay upon deck and was quartered to a 
^'un. The supposed enemy proved a friend, so there 
was no fighting ; but when the secretary went down 
to communicate the intelligence, William Penn rebuked 
him severely for staying upon deck and undertaking 
to assist in defending the vessel, contrary to the 
principles of Friends, especially as it had not been 
required by the captain. This reprimand, being before 
all the company, piqued the secretary, who answered : 
"I being thy servant, why did thee not order me to 
come down ? But thee was willing enough that I 
should stay and help to fight the ship when thee 
thought there was danger." 

My being many years in the Assembly, a majority 
of which was constantly Quakers, gave me frequent 
opportunities of seeing the embarrassment given them 
by their principle against war whenever application 
was made to them, by order of the crown, to grant 
aids for military purposes. They were unwilling to 

fend government, on the one hand, by a direct 
iusal, and their friends, the body of the Quakers, on 

le other, by a compliance contrary to their principles, 
using a variety of evasions to avoid complying and 
modes of disguising the compliance when it became 
unavoidable. The common mode at last was to grant 
money under the phrase of its being "for the Icing's 
use^'^ and never to inquire how it was applied. 

But if the demand was not directly from the crown, 
that phrase was found not so proper, and some other 



144 AUfomOGBAPHY Off 

was to be invented. Thus when powder was wanted 
(I think it was for the garrison at Louisburg) and the 
government at New England solicited a grant of some 
from Pennsylvania, which was much urged on the 
House by Governor Thomas, they would not grant 
money to buy powder ^ because that was an ingredient 
of war, but they voted an aid to 'New England of 
three thousand pounds, to be put into the hand of the 
governor, and appropriated it for the purchase of 
bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. Some of the Coun- 
cil, desirous of giving the House still further embar- 
rassment, advised the governor not to accept that 
provision, as not being the thing he had demanded, 
but he replied, " I shall take the money, for I under- 
stand very well their meaning ; other grain is gun- 
powder ;" which he accordingly bought, and they 
never objected to it. 

It was in allusion to this fact that, when in our fire 
company we feared the success of our proposal in 
favor of the lottery, and I had said to a friend of mine, 
one of our members, " If we fail let us move the pur- 
chase of a fire engine with the money, the Quakers 
can have no objection to that ; and then, if you nomi- 
nate me and I you as a committee for that purpose, 
we will buy a great gun, which is certainly a fire 
engineP "I see,'' said he, ''you have improved by 
being so long in the Assembly ; your equivocal project 
would be just a match for their wheat or other grainP 

Those embarrassments that the Quakers suffered, 
from having established and published it as one of 
their principles that no kind of war was lawful, and 
which, being once published, they could not afterward, 
however they might change their minds, easily get rid 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 145 

of, reminds me of what I think a more prudent con- 
duct in another sect among us, that of the Dunkers. 
I was acquainted with one of Its founders, Michael 
"Weffare, soon after it appeared. He complained tome 
that they were grievously calumniated by the zealots 
of other persuasions, and charged with abominable 
principles and practices to which they were utter 
strangers. I told him this had always been the case 
with new sects, and that to put a stop to such abuse I 
imagined it might be well to publish the articles of 
their belief and the rules of their discipline. He said 
that it had been proposed among them, but not agreed 
to for this reason : "When we were first drawn to- 
gether as a society," said he, " it had pleased God to 
enlighten our minds so far as to see that some doc- 
trines which were esteemed truths were errors, and 
that others which we had esteemed errors were real 
truths. From time to time he has been pleased to 
afford us further light, and our principles have been 
improving and our errors diminishing. Now we are 
not sure that we are arrived at the end of this pro- 
gression and at the perfection of spiritual or theolog- 
•'oal knowledge, and we fear that if we should once 

rint our confession of faith, we should feel ourselves 
IS if bound and confined by it, and perhaps be unwill- 
ing to receive further improvement, and our successors 
still more so, as conceiving what their elders and 
founders had done to be something sacred — never to 
be departed from." 

This modesty in a sect is perhaps a single instance 
in the history of manldnd, every other sect supposing 
itself in possession of all truth, and that those who 
differ are so far in the wrong; like a man trav* 



146 AttTOBtOGRAPST OP 

eling in foggy weather, those at some distance before 
him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog as well 
as those behind him, and also the people in the fields 
on each side, but near him all appears clear, though, in 
truth, he is as much in the fog as any of them. To 
avoid this kind of embarrassment, the Quakers have 
of late years been gradually declining the public 
service in the Assembly and in the magistracy, 
choosing rather to quit their power than their 
principle. 

In order of time I should have mentioned before 
that having, in 1742, invented an open stove for the 
better warming of rooms, and at the same time saving 
fuel, as the fresh air was warmed in entering, I made 
a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of 
my early friends, who having an iron furnace found 
the casting of the plates for these stoves a profitable 
thing, as they were growing in demand. To promote 
that demand I wrote and published a pamphlet 
entitled " An Account of the new-invented Pennsyl- 
vanian Fire-places, wherein their Construction and 
Manner of Operation are particularly explained, their 
advantages above every other Method of Warming 
Rooms demonstrated, and all Objections that have 
been raised against the Use of them answered and 
obviated," etc. This pamphlet had a good effect. 
Governor Thomas was so pleased with the construe- 
tion of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to 
give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a 
term of years, but I declined it from a principle which 
has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., 
that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions 
of others^ we should he glad of an opportunity to serv^ 



BBNJAMm FRANKLIN. 14? 

others hy any invention of ours^ and this we should do 
freely and generously. 

An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a 
good deal of my pamphlet and working it up into his 
own, and making some small changes in the machine, 
which rather hurt its operation, got a patent for it 
there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. 
And this is hot the only instance of patents taken out 
of my inventions by others, though not always with 
the same success ; which I never contested, as having 
no desire of profiting by patents myself and hating 
disputes. The use of these fire-places in very many 
houses, both here in Pennsylvania and the neighboring 
States, has been and is a great saving of wood to the 
inhabitants. 



148 A UTOBIOQRAPHT OF 



CHAPTEK IX. 

Peace being concluded and the association business 
therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts again to 
the affair of establishing an academy. The first step 
I took was to associate in the design a number of 
active friends, of whom the Junto furnished a good 
part ; the next was to write and publish a pamphlet, 
entitled "Proposals relating to the Education of 
Youth in Pennysvlania." This I distributed among the 
principal inhabitants gratis ; and as soon as I could 
suppose their minds a little prepared by the perusal 
of it, I set on foot a subscription for opening and 
supporting an academy ; it was to be paid in quotas 
yearly for five years. Bj^ so dividing it I judged the 
subscription might be larger ; and I believe it was so, 
amounting to no less, if I remember right, than five 
thousand pounds. 

In the introduction to these proposals I stated their 
publication not as an act of mine, but of some public- 
spirited gentlemen ; avoiding as much as I could, 
according to my usual rule, the presenting myself to 
the public as the author of any scheme for their 
benefit. 

The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate 
execution, chose out of their number twenty-four 
trustees, and appointed Mr. Francis, then Attorney- 
Greneralj and myself, to draw up constitutions for thq 



BEKTAMIN FRANKLIN. 149 

government of the academy ; which being done and 
signed, a house was hired, masters engaged, and the 
schools opened, I think in the same year, 1749. 

The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon 
found too small, and we were looking out for a piece 
of ground, properly situated, with intent to build, 
when accident threw into our way a large house ready 
built, which, with a few alterations, might well serve 
our purpose. This was the building before mentioned, 
erected by the hearers of Mr. Whitefield, and was 
obtained for us in the following manner. 

It is to be noted that the contributions to this 
building being made by people of different sects, care 
was taken in the nomination of trustees in whom the 
building and ground Avere to be vested, that a pre- 
dominancy should not be given to any sect, lest in 
time that predominancy might be a means of appro- 
priating the whole to the use of such sect, contrary to 
the original intention. It was for this reason that one 
of each sect was appointed, viz., one Church of England 
man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, 
etc., who, in case of vacancy by death, were to fill it 
by election from among the contributors. The 
Moravian happened not to please his colleagues, and 
on his death they resolved to have no other of that 
sect. The difficulty then was how to avoid having 
two of some other sect, by means of the choice. 

Several persons were named, and for that reason 
not agreed to. At length one mentioned me, with the 
observation that I was merely an honest, man, and of 
no sect at all, which prevailed with them to choose 
me. The enthusiasm which existed when the house 
was built had long since abated, and its trustees had 



160 A UTOBtpGRAPHT OP 

not been able to procure fresh contributions for paying 
the ground-rent and discharging some other debts the 
building had occasioned, which embarrassed them 
greatly. Being now a member of both boards of 
trustees, that for the building and that for the 
academ}'', I had a good opportunity for negotiating 
with both, and brought them finally to an agreement 
by which the trustees for the building were to cede it 
to those of the academy ; the latter undertaking to 
discharge the debt, to keep forever open in the build- 
ing a large hall for occasional preachers, according to 
the original intention, and maintain a free school for 
the instruction of poor children. Writings were accord- 
ingly drawn ; and on paying the debts the trustees of 
the academy were put in possession of the premises, 
and by dividing the great and lofty hall into stories 
and different rooms above and below for the several 
schools, and purchasing some additional ground, the 
whole was soon made fit for our purpose and the 
scholars removed into the building. The whole care 
and trouble of agreeing with the workman, purchasing 
materials, and superintending the work fell upon me ; 
and I went through it the more cheerfully as it did 
not then interfere with my private business, having 
the year before taken a very able, industrious, and 
honest partner, Mr. David Hall, with whose character 
I was well acquainted, as he had worked for me four 
years. He took off my hands all care of the printing- 
office, paying me punctualh'' my share of the profits. 
This partnership continued eighteen years, successfully 
for us both. 

The trustees of the academy, after awhile, were 
i^Qcrporated by a charter from the governor; their 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 151 

funds were increased by contributions in Britain and 
grants of land from the proprietaries, to which the 
Assembly has since made consMerable addition ; and 
thus vA^as established the present University of Phila- 
delphia. I have been continued one of its trustees 
from the beginning, now near forty years, and have 
had the very great pleasure of seeing a number of the 
youth who have received their education in it di^ 
tinguished by their improved abilities, serviceable ii 
public stations, and ornaments to their country. 

When I was disengaged myself, as above mentioned, 
from private business, I flattered myself that by the 
sufficient though moderate fortune I had acquired I 
had found leisure during the rest of my life for philo- 
sophical studies and amusements. I purchased all 
Dr. Spence's apparatus, who had come from England 
to lecture in Philadelphia, and I proceeded in my 
electrical experiments with great alacrity ; but the 
public, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid 
hold of me for their purposes, everj^^ part of our civil 
government, and almost at the same time, imposing 
some duty upon me. The governor put me into the 
commission of the peace ; the corporation of the city 
chose me one of the Common Council and soon after 
alderman ; and the citizens at large elected me a 
burgess to represent them in the Assembly. This 
latter station was the more agreeable to me, as I grew 
at leno^th tired with sittino: there to hear the debates, 
in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which 
were often so uninteresting that I was induced to 
amuse myself with making magic squares or circles, 
or anything to avoid weariness ; and I conceived mj'' 
becoming a member would enlarge my power of doing 



152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

good. I would not, however, insinuate that my am- 
bition was not flattered by all these promotions ; it 
certainly was, for considering my low beginning they 
were great things to me, and they were still more 
pleasing as being so many spontaneous testimonies of 
the public good opinion, and by me entirely un- 
solicited. 

The office of justice of the peace 1 tried a little b}^ 
attending a few courts and sitting on the bench to 
hear causes ; but finding that more knowledge of the 
common law than I possessed was necessary to act in 
that station with credit, I gradually withdrew from it, 
excusing myself by being obliged to attend the higher 
duties of a legislator in the Assembly. My election 
to this trust was repeated every year for ten j^^ears, 
without my ever asking any elector for his vote or 
signifying, either directly or indirectly, any desire of 
being chosen. On taking my seat in the House my 
son was appointed their clerk. 

The year following, a treaty being to be held with 
the Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent a message 
to the House proposing that they should nominate 
some of their members, to be joined with some mem- 
bers of Council, as commissioners for that purpose. 
The House named the Speaker (Mr. Norris) and my- 
self, and being commissioned we went to Carlisle and 
met the Indians accordingly. 

As those people are extremely apt to get drunk, and 
when so are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we 
strictly forbade the selling any liquor to them ; and 
when they complained of this restriction, we told them 
that if they would continue sober during the treaty 
we would give them plenty of rum when the business 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 153 

was over. They promised this, and they kept tteir 
promise, because they could get no rum ; and the 
treaty was conducted very orderiy and concluded to 
mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received 
the rum ; this was in the afternoon. They were near 
one hundred men, women, and children, and were 
lodged iu temporary cabins, built in the form of a 
square, just Without the town. In the evening, hearing 
a great noise among them, the commissioners walked 
to see what was the matter. We found they had 
made a great ' bonfire in the middle of the square ; 
they were all drunk, men and women, quarreling and 
fighting. Their dark-colored bodies, half-naked, seen 
only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, running after 
and beating one another with fire-brands, accompanied 
by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the most re- 
sembling our ideas of hell that could well be imagined ! 
There was no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to 
our lodging. At midnight a number of them came 
thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which 
we took no notice. • 

The next day, sensible they had misbehaved in giv- 
ino^ us that disturbance, thev sent three of their old 
counselors to make their apology. The orator ac- 
knowledged the fault, but laid it upon the rum; and 
then endeavored to excuse the rum by saying : " The 
Great Spirit, who made all things, made everything 
for some use; and whatever use he designed anything 
for. that use it should always be put to. Now, when 
he made rum, he said, 'Let this he for the. Indians to 
get drimh with;' and it must be so.-' And,. indeed, if 
it be the design of Providence to extirpate these 
savages in order to make room for the cultivators of 



154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

the earth, it seems not impossible that rum may be the 
appomted means. It has already annihilated all the 
tribes who formerly inhabited the sea-coast. 

In 1751 Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of 
mine, conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in 
Philadelphia (a verj^ beneficent design, which has 
been ascribed to me, but was originally and truly his) 
for the reception and cure of poor sick persons, 
whether inhabitants of the province or strangers. 
He was zealous and active in endeavoring to procure 
subscriptions for it ; but the proposal being a novelty 
in America, and at first not well understood, he met 
but with little success. 

At length he came to me with the compliment that 
he found there was no such a thing as carrying a 
public-spirited project through without my being con- 
cerned in it. " For," said he, " I am often asked by 
those to whom I propose subscribing, ' Have you con- 
suited Franklin on this business f And what does he 
think of it V And when I tell them that I have not, 
supposing it rather out of your line, they do not sub- 
scribe, but say. They vnll consider itP I inquired 
into the nature and probable utility of this scheme, 
and receiving from him a very satisfactory explana- 
tion, I not only subscribed to it myself, but engaged 
heartily in the design of procuring subscriptions from 
others. Previously, however, to the solicitation, I 
endeavored to prepare the minds of the people bv 
writing on the subject in the newspapers, which was 
my usual custom in such cases, but which Dr. Bond 
had omitted. 

The subscriptions afterward were more free and 
generous; but, beginning to flag, I saw they would be 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 155 

insufficient without some assistance from the Assenibly, 
and therefore proposed to petition for it, which was 
done. Th^ country members did^not at first relish the 
project. They objected that it could only be service- 
able to the city, and therefore the citizens alone should 
be at the expense of it ; and they doubted whether 
the citizens themselves generally approved of it. My 
allegation, oh the contrary, that it met with such ap- 
probation as to leave no doubt of our being able to 
raise two thousand pounds by voluntary donations, 
they considered as a most extravagant supposition and 
utterly impossible. 

On this I formed my plan ; and asking leave to 
bring in a bill for incorporating the contributors 
according to the prayer of their petition and granting 
them a blank sum of money, which leave was obtained 
chiefly on the consideration that the House could 
throw the bill out if they did not like it, I drew it so 
as to make the important clause a conditional one, 
viz.: " And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, 
that when the said contributors shall have met and 
chosen their managers and treasurer, and shall have 
raised by their contributions a capital stock of two 
thousand pounds' value (the yearly interest of which 
is to be applied to the accommodation of the sick 
poor in the said hospital, and of charge for diet, at- 
tendance, advice, and medicines), and shall make the 
same appear to the satisfaction of the Speaker of the 
Assembly for the time heing^ that then it shall and may 
be lawful for the said Speaker, and he is hereby required 
to sign an order on the provincial treasurer for the 
payment of two thousand pounds, in two yearly pay- 
paentSj to the treasurer of the said hospital, to b(^ 



156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

applied to the founding, building, and finishing of the 
same.'' 

This condition carried the bill through ; for the 
members who had opposed the grant and now con- 
ceived they might have the credit of. being charitable 
without the expense agreed to its passage. And then, 
in soliciting subscriptions among the people, we urged 
the conditional promise of the law as an additional 
motive to give, since every man's donation would be 
doubled ; thus the clause worked both ways. The 
subscriptions accordingly soon exceeded the requisite 
sum, and we claimed and received the public gift, 
which enabled us to carry the design into execution. 
A convenient and handsome building was soon erected ; 
the institution has by constant experience been found 
useful and flourishes to this day ; and I do not 
remember any of my political maneuvers the success 
of which at the time gave me more pleasure, or 
wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excused 
myself for having made some use of cunning. 

It was about this time that another projector, the 
Rev. Gilbert Tennent, came to me with a request that 
I would assist him in procuring a subscription for 
erecting a new meeting-house. It was to be for the 
use of a congregation he had gathered among the 
Presbyterians who were originally disciples of Mr. 
Whitefleld. Unwilling to make myself disagreeable 
to my fellow-citizens by too frequently soliciting their 
contribution, I absolutely refused. He then desired I 
would furnish him with the list of the names of per- 
sons I knew by experience to be generous and public- 
spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in me, after 
their kind compliance with my solicitationsj to mark 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 157 

them out to be worried by other beggars, and there- 
fore refused to give such a list. He then desired I 
would at least give him my advice. " That I will 
readily do," said I ; " and, in the first place, I advise 
you to apply to all those who you know will give 
something; next, to those who you are uncertain 
Avhether they will give anything or not, and show 
them the list of those who have given ; and lastly, do 
not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing ; 
for in some of them you may be mistaken." He 
laughed and thanked me, and he said he would take 
my advice. He did so, for he asked of everybody ; 
and he obtained a much larger sum than he expected, 
with which he erected the capacious and elegant 
meeting-house that stands in Arch Street. 

Our city, though laid out with a beautiful regularity, 
the streets large, straight, and crossing each other at 
right angles, had the disgrace of suffering those 
streets to remain long unpaved, and in wet weather 
the wheels of heavy carriages plowed them into a 
quagmire, so that it was difficult to cross them ; and 
in dry weather the dust was offensive. I had lived 
near what was called the Jersey Market, and saw with 
pain the inhabitants wading in mud while purchasing 
their provisions. A strip of ground down the middle 
of that market was at length paved with brick, so 
that being once in the market they had firm footing ; 
but were often over shoes in dirt to get there. By 
talking and writing on the subject, I was at length 
instrumental in getting the street paved with stone 
between the market -and the brick foot pavement, that 
was on the side next the houses. This for some time 
gave an easy access to the market dry-shod ; but the 



158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

rest of the street not being paved, whenever a carriage 
came out of the mud upon this pavement it shook off 
and left its dirt upon it, and it was soon covered with 
mire, which was not removed, the city as yet having 
no scavengers. 

After some inquiry I found a poor, industrious man, 
who was willing to undertake keeping the pavement 
clean by sweeping it twice a week, carrying off the 
dirt from before all the neighbors' doors, for the sum 
of sixpence per month, to be paid by each house. I 
then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the 
advantages to the neighborhood that might be 
obtained from this small expense ; the greater ease in 
keeping our houses clean, so much dirt not being 
brought in by people's feet ; the benefit to the shops 
by more custom, as buj^ers could more easily get at 
them ; and by not having in windy weather the dust 
blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I sent one 
of these papers to each house, and in a day or 
two went round to see who would subscribe an 
agreement to pay these sixpences; it was unani- 
mously signed and for a time well executed. All the 
inhabitants of the city were delighted with the clean- 
liness of the pavement that surrounded the market, it 
being a convenience to all, and this raised a general 
desire to have all the streets paved and made the 
people more willing to submit to a tax for that 
purpose. 

After some time I drew a bill for paving the city 
and brought it into the Assembly. It was just before 
I went to England, in 1757, and did not pass till I was 
gone, and then with an alteration in the mode of 
assessment wbicii I thought riot for the better, but 



MNJAMtN FRANKLIN. 15$ 

with an additional provision for lighting as well as 
paving the streets, which was a great improvement. 
It was by a private person, the late Mr. John Clifton, 
giving a sample of the utility of lamps, by placing one 
at his door, that the people were first impressed with 
die idea of lighting all the city. The honor of this 
public benefit has also been ascribed to me, but it 
belongs truly to that gentleman. I did but follow his 
example, and have only some merit to claim respecting 
the form of our lamps, as differing from the globe 
lamps we were at first supplied with from London. 
They were found inconvenient in these respects : they 
admitted no air below ; the smoke therefore did not 
readily go out above, but circulated in the globe, 
lodged on its inside, and soon obstructed the light 
they were intended to afford ; giving besides the 
daily trouble of wiping them clean ; and an accidental 
stroke on one of them would demolish it and render 
it totally useless. I therefore suggested the composing 
them of four flat panes, with a long funnel above to 
draw up the smoke, and crevices admitting the air 
below to facilitate the ascent of the smoke ; by this 
means they were kept clean and did not grow dark in 
w few hours, as the London lamps do, but continued 
bright till morning ; and an accidental stroke would 
generally break but a single pane, easil}^ repaired. 

I have sometimes wondered that the Londoners did 
not, from the effect holes in the bottom of the globe 
lamps used at Vauxhall have in keeping them clean, 
learn to have such holes in their street lamps. But 
these holes being made for another purpose, viz., to 
communicate flame more suddenly to the wick by a 
little flax hanging down through them, the other use, 



loO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

of letting in air, seems not to have been thought of ; 
and therefore after the lamps have been lit a few 
hours the streets of London are very poorly illuminated. 

The mention of these improvements puts me in mind 
of one I proposed, when in London, to Dr. Fothergill, 
who was among the best men I have known, and a 
great promoter of useful projects. I had observed 
that the streets, when dry, were never swept and the 
light dust carried away, but it was suffered to accu- 
mulate till wet weather reduced it to mud ; and then, 
after lying some days so deep on the pavement that 
there was no crossing but in paths kept clean by poor 
people with brooms, it was with great labor raked 
together and thrown up into carts, open above, the 
sides of which suffered some of the slush at every jolt 
on the pavement to shake out and fall ; sometimes to 
the annoyance of foot passengers. The reason given 
for not sweeping the dusty streets was that the dust 
would fly into the windows of shops and houses. 

An accidental occurrence had instructed me how 
much sweeping might be done in a Little time. I found 
at my door in Craven Street, one morning, a poor 
woman sweeping my pavement with a birch broom ; 
she appeared very pale and feeble, as just come out of 
a fit of sickness. I asked who employed her to sweep 
there ; she said, " Nobody ; but I am poor and in 
distress, and I sweeps before gentle folkses' doors and 
hopes they will give me something." I bid her sweep 
the whole street clean and I would give her a shilling ; 
this was at nine o'clock, and at noon she came for the 
shilling. From the slowness I saw at first in her 
working I could scarce believe that the work was done 
so soouj and sent my servant to examine it, who 



BENJAMIN FEANKLI^. 161 

reported that the whole street was swept perfectly 
clean and all the dust placed in the gutter, which was 
in the middle ; and the next ram washed it quite away, 
so that the pavement and even the kennel were 
perfectly clean. 

I then judged that if that feeble woman could sweep 
such a street in three hours, a strong, active man 
might have done it in half the time. And here let me 
remark the convenience of having but one gutter in 
such a narrow street, running down its middle, instead 
of two, one on each side near the footwav. For where 
all the rain that falls on a street runs from the sides 
and meets in the middle, it forms there a current 
strong enough to wash away all the mud it meets with ; 
but when divided into two channels, it is often too weak 
to cleanse either and only msikes the mud it finds more 
fluid ; so that the wheels of carriages and feet of 
horses throw and dash it upon the foot pavement, 
which is thereby rendered foul and slippery, and 
sometimes splash it upon those who are walking. My 
proposal, communicated to the doctor, was as follows : 

" For the more effectually cleaning and keeping 
clean the streets of London and Westminster, it is pro- 
posed that the several watchmen be contracted with 
to have the dust swept up in dry seasons and the mud 
raked up at other times, each in the several streets 
and lanes of his round ; that they be furnished with 
brooms and other proper instruments for these pur- 
poses, to be kept at their respective stands, ready to 
furnish the poor people they may employ in the 
service. 

" That in the dry summer months the dust be all 
swept up into heaps at proper distances, before the 



162 Autobiography 0TB* 

shops and windows of houses are usually opened, 
when scavengers with close-covered carts shall also 
carry it all away. 

" That the mud, when raked up, be not left in heaps 
to be spread abroad again by the wheels of carriages 
and trampling of horses, but that the scavengers be 
provided with bodies of carts, not placed upon wheels, 
but low upon sliders, with lattice bottoms, which, 
being covered with straw, will retain the mud thrown 
upon them and permit the water to drain from it ; 
whereby it will become much lighter, water making 
the greatest part of the weight. These bodies of carts 
to be placed at convenient distances and the mud 
brought to them in wheelbarrows, they remaining 
where placed till the mud is drained, and then horses 
brought to draw them awa3\" 

I have since had doubts of the practicability of the 
latter part of this proposal in all places, on account of 
the narrowness of some streets and the difficulty of 
placing the draining sleds so as not to incumber too 
much the passage ; but I am still of opinion that the 
former, requiring the dust to be swept up and carried 
away before the shops are open, is very practicable 
in the summer, when the days are long ; for in walk- 
ing through the Strand and Fleet Street one morning 
at seven o'clock, I observed there was not one shop 
open, though it had been daylight and the sun up 
above three hours ; the inhabitants of London choos- 
ing voluntarily ^o live much by candlelight and sleep 
by sunshine, and yet often complain, a little absurdly, 
of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow. 

Some may think these trifling matters not worth 
minding or relating; but when they consider that 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. l63 

though dust blown into the eyes of a single person or 
into a single shop in a windy day is but of small im- 
portance, yet the great number of the instances in a 
populous city and its frequent repetition gives its 
weight and consequence, perhaps they will not censure 
very severely those who bestow some attention to 
afifairs of this seemingly low nature. Human felicity 
is produced not so much by great pieces of good for- 
tune that seldom happen as by little advantages that 
occur every day. Thus if you teach a poor young man 
to shave himself and keep his razor in order, you may 
contribute more to the happiness of his life than in 
giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon 
spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly 
consumed it; but in the other case he escapes the 
frequent vexation of waiting for barbers and their 
sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull 
razors ; he shaves when most convenient to him, and 
enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good 
instrument. With these sentiments I have hazarded 
the few preceding pages, hoping they may afford hints 

which some time or other mav be useful to a citv I 

t/ tj 

love, having lived many years in it very happily, and 
perhaps to some of our towns in America. 

Having been some time employed by the Postmaster- 
General of America as his comptroller in regulating 
several offices and bringing the officers to account, I 
was, upon his death in 1753, appointed, jointly with 
Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him, by a commission 
from the Postmaster-General in England. The Amer- 
ican office had hitherto never paid anything to that of 
Britain. We were to have six hundred pounds a year 
between us if we could make that sum out of tho 



Ui Autobiography op 

profits of the office. To do this a variety of improve- 
ments were necessary ; some of these were inevitably 
at first expensive ; so that in the first four years the 
office became about nine hundred pounds in debt to us. 
But it soon after began to repay us, and before I was 
displaced by a freak of the ministers, of which I shall 
speak hereafter, we had brought it to yield three times 
as much clear revenue to the crown as the post-office 
of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they 
have received from it — not one farthing ! 

The business of the post-office occasioned my taking 
a journey this year to New England, where the College 
of Cambridge, of their own motion, presented me with 
the degree of Master of Arts. Yale College in Connecti- 
cut had before made me a similar compliment. Thus 
without studying in any college I came to partake of 
their honors. They were conferred in consideration 
of my improvements and discoveries in the electric 
branch of natural philosophy. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 165 



CHAPTER X. 

In 1754, war with France being again apprehended, 
a congress of commissioners from the different 
colonies was by an order of the Lords of Trade to be 
assembled at Albany, there to confer with the chiefs 
of the Six Nations concerning the means of defending 
both their country and ours. Governor Hamilton 
having received this order acquainted the House with 
it, requesting they would furnish proper presents for 
the Indians, to be given on this occasion ; and naming 
the Speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself to join Mr. John 
Penn and Mr. Secretary Peters as commissioners to 
act for Pennsylvania. The House approved the nomi- 
nation and provided the goods for the presents, 
though they did not much like treating out of the 
province; and we met the other commissioners at 
Albany about the middle of June. 

In our way thither I projected and d^ew up a plan 
for the union of all the colonies under one govern- 
ment, so far as might be necessary for defense, and 
other important general purposes. As we passed 
through New York I had there shown my project to 
Mr. James Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentle- 
men of great knowledge in public affairs ; and being 
fortified by their approbation, I ventured to lay it be- 
fore the congress. It then appeared that several of 
the commissioners had formed plans of the same kind. 



166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OS' 

A previous question was first taken, whether a union 
should be established, which passed in the affirmative 
unanimously. A committee was then appointed, one 
member from each colony, to consider the several 
plans and report. Mine happened to be preferred 
and, with a few amendments, was accordingly re- 
ported. 

By this plan the general goverment was to be ad- 
ministered by a president-general, appointed and sup- 
ported by the crown, and a grand council was to be 
chosen by the representatives of the people of the 
several colonies met in their respective assemblies. 
The debates upon it in the congress went on daily, 
hand in hand with the Indian business. Many objec- 
tions and difficulties were started; but at length they 
were all overcome and the plan was unanimously 
agreed to, and copies ordered to be transmitted to the 
Board of Trade and to the Assemblies of the several 
provinces. Its fate was singular ; the Assemblies did 
not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much 
prerogative in it \ and in England it was judged to 
have too much of the democratiG, The Board of 
Trade did not approve it nor recommend it for the 
approbation of his majesty ; but another scheme was 
formed, supposed to answer the same purpose better, 
whereby the governors of the provinces, with some 
members of their respective councils, were to meet and 
order the raising of troops, building of forts, etc., and 
to draw on the treasury of Great Britain for the ex- 
pense, which w^as afterward to be refunded by an act 
of Parliament laying a tax on America. My plan, 
with my reasons in support of it, is to be found among 
my political papers that were printed. 



BENJAMIN FRAFKLm. IVt 

Being the winter following in Boston, I had touch 
conversation with Governor Shirley upon both the 
plans. Part of what passed ^between us on this 
occasion may also be seen amon^ those papers. The 
dijQferent and contrary reasons bf dislike to my plan 
make me suspect that it was really the true medium, 
and I am still of opinion it would have been happy for 
both sides if it had been adopted. The colonies so 
united would have been suflBciently strong to have de- 
fended themselves ; there would then have been no 
need of troops from England ; of course the subsequent 
pretext for taxing America and the bloody contest it 
occasioned would have been avoided. But such mis- 
takes are not new; history is full of the errors of 
states and princes. 

** Look round the habitable world; how few 
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue!" 

Those who govern, having much business on their 
hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of 
considering and carrying into execution new projects. 
The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted 
from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion. 

The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down 
to the Assembly, expressed his approbation of the 
plan, "as appearing to him to be drawn up with great 
clearness and strength of judgment, and therefore 
recommended it as well worthy of their closest and 
most serious attention." The House, however, by the 
management of a certain member, took it up when I 
happened to be absent, which I thought not very fair, 
and reprobated it without paying any attention to it 
at all, to mj no small mortification, 



168 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

In my journey to Boston this year I met at New 
York with our new governor, Mr. Morris, just arrived 
there from England, with whom I had been before 
intimately acquainted. He brought a commission to 
supersede Mr. Hamilton, who, tired with the disputes 
his proprietary instructions subjected him to, had re- 
signed. Mr. Morris asked me if I thought he must 
expect as uncomfortable an administration. I saidj 
" No ; you may, on the contrary, have a very com- 
fortable one if you will only take care not to 
enter into any dispute with the Assembly." " My 
dear friend," said he pleasantly, " how can you advise 
my avoiding disputes ? You know I love disputing — 
it is one of my greatest pleasures ; however, to show 
the regard I have for your counsel, I promise you I 
will, if possible, avoid them." He had some reason 
for loving to dispute; being eloquent, an acute 
sophister, and therefore generally successful in argu- 
mentative conversation. He had been brought up to 
it from a boy, his father, as I have heard, accustoming 
his children to dispute with one another for his diver- 
sion while sitting at table after dinner; but I think the 
practice was not wise, for in the course of my observa- 
tion those disputing, contradicting, and confuting 
people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. 
They get victory sometimes, but they never get good- 
will, which would be of more use to them. We 
parted, he going to Philadelphia and I to Boston^ 

In returning I met at New York with the votes of 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania, by which it appeared 
that notwithstanding his promise to me he and the 
House were already in high contention, and it was a 
continual battle between them as long as he retained 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 169 

the government. I had my share of it, for as soon' as 
I got back to my seat in the Assembly I was put on 
every committee for answering his speeches and 
messages, and by the committees always desired to 
make the drafts. Our answers, as well as his mes- 
sages, were often tart and sometimes indecently 
abusive, and as he knew I wrote for the Assembly 
one might have imagined that when we met we could 
hardly avoid cutting throats ; but he was so good= 
natured a man that no personal difference between 
him and me was occasioned by the contest, and we 
often dined together. 

One afternoon, in the height of this public quarrel, 
we met in the street. " Franklin," said he, " you must 
go home with me and spend the evening. I am to 
have some company that you will like," and taking me 
by the arm led me to his house. In gay conversation 
over our wine after supper he told us, jokingly, that 
he much admired the idea of Sancho Panza, who, 
when it was proposed to give him a government, 
requested it might be a government of blacks, as 
then, if he could not agree with his people, he might 
sell them. One of his friends, who sat next to me, 
said; "Franklin, why do you continue to side with 
those damned Quakers? Had you not better sell 
them ? The proprietor would give you a good price." 
'^ The governor," replied I, " has not yet Hacked 
them enough." He, indeed, had labored hard to 
blacken the Assembly in all his messages, but they 
wiped off his coloring as fast as he laid it on, and 
placed it, in return, thick upon his own face, so that 
finding he was likely to be negrofied himself, he, 
as well as Mr. Hamilton, grew tired of the contest and 
quitted the government. 



170 ^ UTOBIOQRAPET OF 

These public quarrels were all at bottom owing to 
the proprietaries, our hereditary governors, who, when 
any expense was to be incurred for the defense of their 
province, with incredible meanness instructed their 
deputies to pass no act for levying tbe necessary taxes 
unless their vast estates were in the same act ex- 
pressly exonerated ; and they had even taken the 
bonds of these deputies to observe such instructions. 
The Assemblies for three years held out against this 
injustice, though constrained to bend at last. At 
length Captain Denny, who was Governor Morris' 
successor, ventured to disobey those instructions : 
how that was brought about I shall show hereafter. 

But I am got forward too fast with my story ; 
there are still some transactions to be mentioned that 
happened during the administration of Governor 
Morris. 

War being in a manner commenced with France, 
the government of Massachusetts Bay projected an 
attack upon Crown Point, and sent Mr, Quincy to 
Pennsylvania and Mr. Pownall, afterward Governor 
Pownall, to New York, to solicit assistance. As I was 
in the Assembly, knew its temper, and was Mr. 
Quincy's countryman, he applied to me for my 
influence and assistance. I dictated his address to 
them, which was well received. They voted an aid of 
ten thousand pounds, to be laid out in provisions. But 
the governor refusing his assent to their bill (which 
included this with other sums granted for the use of 
the crown) unless a clause were inserted exempting the 
proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax 
that would be necessary, the Assembly, though very 
desirous s>t making their grant to I^ew England 



BENJAMIN FBANKLIN. 171 

effectual, were at a loss how to accomplish it. Mr. 
Quincy labored bard witb tbe governor to obtain his 
assent, but be was obstinate. 

I then suggested a method of doing the business 
without the governor, by orders on the trustees of the 
loan oiHce, which by law the Assembly had the right 
of drawing. There was indeed little or no money at 
the time in the office, and therefore I proposed that 
the orders should be payable in a year and to bear 
an interest of five per cent. With these orders 1 
supposed the provisions might easily be purchased. 
The Assembly, with very little hesitation, adopted the 
proposal. The orders were immediately printed, and 
.1 was one of the committee directed to sign and 
dispose of them. The fund for paying them was the 
interest of all the paper currency then extant in the 
province upon loan, together with the revenue arising 
from the excise, which being known to be more than 
sufficient, they obtained credit, and were not only 
taken in payment for the provisions, but many 
moneyed people who had cash lying by them vested it 
in those orders, which they found advantageous, as 
they bore interest while upon hand and might on any 
occasion be used as money; so that they were eagerly 
all bought up, and in a few weeks none of them was 
to be seen. Thus this important affair was by my 
means completed. Mr. Quincy returned thanks to the 
Assembly in a handsome memorial, went home highly 
pleased with the success of his embassy, and ever after 
bore for me the most cordial and affectionate friend- 
ship. 

The British government, not choosing to permit the 
union of the colonies as proposed at Albany and to 



172 AUTOBIOQEAPET OF 

trust that union with their defense, lest they should 
thereby grow too military and feel their own strength, 
suspicion and jealousies at this time being entertained 
of them, sent over General Braddock, with two 
regiments of regular English troops for that purpose. 
He landed at Alexandria, in Yirginia, and thence 
marched to Frederictown, in Maryland, were he halted 
for carriages. Our Assembly, apprehending from 
some information that he had conceived violent 
prejudices against them, as averse to the service, 
wished me to wait upon him, not as from them, bat as 
Postmaster-General, under the guise of proposing to 
settle with him the mode of conducting with most 
celerity and certainty the dispatches between him and 
the governors of the several provinces, with whom he 
must necessarily have continual correspondence, and 
of which they proposed to pay the expense. My son 
accompanied me on this journey. 

We found the general at Frederictown, waiting 
impatiently for the return of those he had sent through 
the back parts of Maryland and Yirginia to collect 
wagons. I stayed with him several days, dined with 
him daily, and had full opportunities of removing his 
prejudices by the information of what the Assemblj^ 
had before his arrival actually done, and were still 
willing to do, to facilitate his operations. When I 
was about to depart the returns of wagons to be 
obtained were brought in, by which it appeared that 
they amounted only to twenty-five, and not all of 
those were in serviceable condition. The general and 
all the officers were surprised, declared the expedition 
was then at an end, being impossible, and exclaimed 
ajfainst the irjiuisters for ignorantly sending them into 



BENJAMIN FRANKLm. 173 

a country destitute of the means of conveying their 
stores, baggage, etc., not less than one hundred and 
fifty wagons being necessary. 

I happened to say I thought it was a pity they had 
not been landed in Pennsylvania, as in that country 
almost every farmer had his wagon. The general 
eagerly laid hold of my words and said : " Then you, 
sir, who are a man of interest there, can probably 
procure them for us, and I beg you will undertake it." 
I asked what terms were to be offered the owners of 
the wagons, and I was desired to put on paper the 
terms that appeared to me necessary. This I did, and 
they were agreed to, and a commission and instruc- 
tions accordingly prepared immediately. What those 
terms were will appear in the advertisement I published 
as soon as I arrived at Lancaster, which being, from 
the great and sudden effect it produced, a piece of 
some curiosity, I shall insert it at length as follows : 

*' Advertisement. 

** Lancaster, April 26th, 1755. 
** Whereas, one hundred and fifty wagons, with four horses to 
each wagon, and fifteen hundred saddle or pack horses, are wanted 
for the service of his majesty's forces, now about to rendezvous 
at Will's Creek ; and his excellency General Braddock having been 
pleased to empower me to contract for the hire of the same, I 
hereby give notice that I shall attend for that purpose, at Lan- 
caster, from this day to next Wednesday evening; and at York, 
from next Thursday morning till Friday evening; where I shall 
be ready to agree for wagons and teams, or single horses, on the 
following terms, viz. : 1. That there shall be paid for each wagon, 
with four good horses and a driver, fifteen shillings per diem; 
and for each able horse with a pack-saddle, or other saddle and 
furniture, two shillings per diem; and for each able horse with- 
out a saddle, eighteen pence per diem, 2. That the pay com- 



174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

mence from the time of their joining the forces, at Will's Creek, 
which must be on or before the 20th of May ensuing, and that a 
reasonable allowance be paid over and above for the time neces- 
sary for their traveling to WilPs Creek and home again after their 
discharge. 3. Each wagon and team and every saddle or pack 
horse is to be valued by indifferent persons, chosen between me 
and the owner; and in case of the loss of any wagon, team, or 
other horse in the service, the price according to such valuation 
is to be allowed and paid. 4. Seven days' pay is to be ad vane ad 
and paid in hand by me to the owner of each wagon and team cr 
horse ait the time of contracting, if required; and the remaindei 
to be paid by General Braddock, or by the paymaster of the army, 
at the time of their discharge; or from time to time, as it shall 
be demanded. 5. No drivers of wagons, or persons taking care 
of the hired horses, are on any account to be called upon to do 
the duty of soldiers, or be otherwise employed than in conducting 
or taking care of their carriages or horses. 6. Ml oats, Indian 
corn, or other forage that wagons or horses bring to the camp 
more than is necessary for the subsistence of the horses is to be 
taken for the use of the army, and a reasonable price paid for the 
same. 

'^ JS'ote.—M.Y son, William Franklin, is empowered to enter into 
like contracts with any person in Cumberland County. 

*'B. Franklin." 

" To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster^ York, and 
Cumberla7id, 

'* Friends AND Countrymen: Being occasionally at the camp 
at Frederic a few days since, I found the general and officers 
extremely exasperated on account of their not being supplied with 
horses and carriages, which had been expected from this province, 
as most able to furnish them; but through the dissensions be- 
tween our governor and Assembly, money had not been provided 
nor any steps taken for that purpose. 

*' It was proposed to send an armed force immediately into 
these counties, to seize as many of the best carriages and horses 
as should be wanted, and compel as many persons into the serv- 
ice as would be necessary to drive and take care of them. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLTN. 17S 

**t apprehended that the progress of British soldiers through 
these counties on such an occasion, especially considering the 
temper they are in and their resentment against us, would be 
attended with many and great inconveniences to the inhabitants, 
and therefore more willingly took the trouble of trying first what 
might be done by fair and equitable means. The people of these 
back counties have lately complained to the Assembly that a suf- 
ficient currency was wanting; you have an opportunity of receiv- 
ing and dividing among you a considerable sum; for if the serv- 
ice of this expedition should continue, as it is more than probable 
it will, for one hundred and twenty days, the hire of these wagons 
and horses will amount to upward of thirty thousand pounds, 
which will be paid you in silver and gold of the king's money. 

** The service will be light and easy, for the army will scarce 
march above twelve miles per day, and the wagons and baggage 
horses, as they carry those things that are absolutely necessary 
to the welfare of the army, must march with the army, and no 
faster; and are, for the army's sake, always placed where they 
can be most secure, whether in a march or in a camp. 

* * If you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal sub- 
jects to his majesty, you may now do a most acceptable service 
and make it easy to yourselves; for three or four of such as can- 
not separately spare from, the business of their plantations a 
wagon and four horses and a driver may do it together; one fur- 
nishing the wagon, another one or two horses, and another the 
driver, and divide the pay proportionately between you. But if 
you do not this service to your king and country voluntarily, 
when such good pay and reasonable terms are offered to you, 
your loyalty will be strongly suspected. The king's bisiness 
must be done; so many brave troops, come so far for your de- 
fense, must not stand idle through your backwardness to do what 
may be reasonably expected from you; wagons and horses must 
be had; violent measures will probably be used; and you will be 
left to seek for a recompense where you can find it, and your case 
perhaps be little pitied or regarded. 

'M have no particular interest in this affair, as, except the 
satisfaction of endeavoring to do good, I shall have only my labor 
for my pains. If this method of obtaining the wagons and horses 
\Z aot likely to succeed, I am obliged to send word to the general 



176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

in fourteen days; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hu»«ar^ 
with a body of soldiers, will immediately enter the province for 
the purpose; which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am very 
sincerely and truly your friend and well-wisher, 

*'B. Franklin." 

I received of the general about eight hundred pounds, 
to be disbursed in advance money to the wagon- 
owners ; but that sum being insufficient, I advanced 
upward of two hundred pounds more ; and in two 
weeks the one hundred and fifty wagons, with two 
hundred and fifty-nine carrying-horses, were on their 
march for the camp. The advertisement promised 
payment according to the valuation in case any wagons 
or horses should be lost. The owners, however, 
alleging they did not know General Braddockor what 
dependence might be had on his promise, insisted on 
my bond for the performance, which I accordingly 
gave them. 

While I was at the camp supping one evening 
with the officers of Colonel Dunbar's regiment, he 
represented to me his concern for the subalterns, who, 
he said, were generally not in affluence, and could ill 
afford in this dear country to lay in the stores that 
might be necessary in so long a march through a 
wilderness where nothing was to be purchased. I 
commiserated their case and resolved to endeavor 
procuring them some relief. I said nothing, however, 
to him of my intention, but wrote the next morning to 
the committee of the Assembly, who had the disposition 
of some public money, warmly recommending the 
case of these officers to their consideration, and pro- 
posing that a present should be sent them of neces- 
saries and refreshments. My son, who had some ex- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 17'? 

perience of a camp life and of its wants, drewup a 
list for me, which I inclosed in my letter. The com- 
mittee approved, and used suck diligence that, con- 
ducted by my son, the stores arrived at the camp as 
soon as the wagons. They consisted of twenty parcels, 
each containing 

6 lbs. loaf sugar. 1 keg containing 20 lbs. good 
6 do. Muscovado do. butter. 

1 lb. green tea. 2 dozen old Madeira wine. 

1 do. bohea do. 2 gallons Jamaica spirits. 

6 lbs. ground coffee. 1 bottle flour of mustard. 

6 do. chocolate. 2 well-cured hams, 

i chest best white biscuit. -J dozen dried tongues, 

i lb. pepper. 6 lbs. rice. 

1 quart white vinegar. 6 do. raisins. 
1 Gloucester cheese. 

These parcels, well packed, were placed on as many 
horses, each parcel, with the horse, being intended as 
a present for one officer. They were very thankfully 
received and the kindness acknowledged by letters to 
me, from the colonels of both regiments, in the most 
grateful terms. The general, too, was highly satisfied 
with my conduct in procuring him the wagons, and 
readil}'' paid my account of disbursements, thanking 
me repeatedly and requesting my further assistance 
in sending provisions after him. I undertook this also, 
and was busily employed in it till we heard of his de- 
feat; advancing for the service, of my own money, 
upward of one thousand pounds sterling, of which I 
sent him an account. It came to his hands, luckily 
for me, a few days before the battle, and he returned 
me immediately an order on the paymaster for the 
round sura of one thousand pounds, leaving the re* 



l-^g AvtoBloaitAPiit OP 

mainder to the next account. I consider this payment 
as good luck, having never been able to obtain the 
remainder ; of which more hereafter. 

This general was, I think, a brave man, and might 
probably have made a figure as a good ofllcer in some 
European war. But he had too much self-confidence, 
too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and 
too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George 
Croghan, our Indian interpreter, joined him on his 
march with one hundred of those people, who might 
have been of great use to his army as guides and 
scouts if he had treated them kindly ; but he slighted 
and neglected them and they gradually left him. 

In conversation with him one day, he was giving 
me some account of his intended progress. " After 
taking Fort Duquesne," said he, " I am to proceed to 
Niagara ; and having taken that, to Frontenac, if the 
season will allow time, and I suppose it will; for 
Duquesne can hardly detain me above three or four 
days, and then I see nothing that can obstruct my 
march to Niagara." Having before revolved in my 
mind the long line his army must make in their march 
by a very narrow road, to be cut for them through 
the woods and bushes, and also what I had read of a 
former defeat of fifteen hundred French who invaded 
the Illinois country, I had conceived some doubts and 
some fears for the event of the campaign^ But I ven- 
tured only to say : " To be sure, sir, if you arrive well 
before Duquesne with these fine troops, so well pro- 
vided with artillery, the fort, though completely forti- 
fied and assisted with a very strong garrison, can 
probably make but a short resistance. The only 
danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is 



BENJAMIN PBANKLIN. 179 

from the ambuscades of the Indians, who by constant 
practice are dexterous in laying and executing them , 
and the slender line, near four miles long, which your 
army must make, may expose it to be attacked by 
surprise in its flanks and to be cut like a thread into 
several pieces, w^hich from their distance cannot come 
ap in time to support each other." 

He smiled at my ignorance and replied : " These 
savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your 
raw American militia, but upon the king's regular 
and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they 
should make any impression." I w^as conscious of an 
impropriety in my disputing with a military man in 
matters of his profession, and said no more. The 
enemy, however, did not take the advantage of his 
army which I apprehended its long line of march 
exposed it to, but let it advance without interruption 
till within nine miles of the place; and then, when 
more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where 
the front had halted till all were come over) and in a 
more open part of the woods than any it had passed, 
attacked its advance-guard by a heavy fire from 
behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelli- 
gence the general had of an enemy's being near him. 
This guard being disordered, the general hurried the 
troops up to their assistance, which w-as done in great 
confusion through w^agons, baggage, and cattle, and 
presently the fire came upon their flank. The officers 
being on horseback were more easily distinguished, 
picked out as marks, and fell very fast ; and the sol- 
diers were crowded together in a huddle, having or 
hearing no orders-and standing to be shot at till two- 
thirds of them were killed, and then, being seized 
with a panic, the remainder fled with precipitatioOt 



180 ^ tJTOBlOQitAPHt OP 

The wagoners took each a horse out of his team 
and scampered. Their example was immediately fol- 
lowed by others, so that all the wagons, provisions, 
artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The 
general being wounded was brought off with diffi- 
culty ; his secretary, Mr. Shirley, was killed by his 
side, and out of eighty-six officers sixty-three were 
killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen 
men killed of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred 
had been picked men from the whole army ; the rest 
had been left behind with Colonel Dunbar, who was 
to follow with the heavier part of the stores, provi- 
sions, and baggage. The flyers, not being pursued, 
arrived at Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought 
with them instantly seized him and all his people. 
And though he had now above one thousand men, 
and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at 
most exceed four hundred Indians and French to- 
gether, instead of proceeding and endeavoring to 
recover some of the lost honor, he ordered all the 
stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed, that he 
might have more horses to assist his flight toward the 
settlements and less lumber to remove. He was there 
met with requests from the governors of Virginia, 
Maryland, and Pennsylvania that he would post his 
troops on the frontiers, so as to afford some protec- 
tion to the inhabitants, but he continued his hasty 
march through all the country, not thinking himself 
safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhab- 
itants could protect him. This whole transaction gave 
us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas 
of the prowess of British regular troops had not been 
well founded* 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 181 

In their first march, too, from their landing till they 
got bej^ond the settlements, they had plundered and 
stripped the inhabitants, totally ruining some poor 
families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining the 
people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put 
us out of conceit of such defenders if we had really 
wanted any. How different was the conduct of our 
French friends in 1781, who during a march through 
the most inhabited part of our country, from Rhode 
Island to Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occa- 
sioned not the smallest complaint for the loss of a pig, 
a chicken, or even an apple. 

Captain Orme, who was one of the general's aids- 
de-camp, and being grievously wounded was brought 
off with him and continued with him to his death, 
which happened in a few days, told me that he was 
totally silent all the first day, and at night only said : 
" Who would have thought it ?" That he was silent 
again the following day, saying only at last, " We 
shall better know how to deal with them another 
time," and died in a few minutes after. 

The secretary's papers, with all the general's orders, 
instructions, and correspondence, falling into the 
enemy's hands, they selected and translated into 
French a number of the articles, which they printed, 
to prove the hostile intentions of the British court 
before the declaration of war. Among these I saw 
some letters of the general to the ministry, speaking 
highly of the great service I had rendered to the 
army and recommending me to their notice. David 
Hume, who was some years afterward secretary to 
Lord Hertford when minister in France, and after- 
ward to General Conway when Secretary of State,^ 



J§2 AUTOBIOQRAPHT 0¥ 

told he had seen among the papers in that office let- 
ters from Braddock highly recommending me. But 
the expedition having been unfortunate, my service, 
it seems, was not thought of much value, for those 
recommendations were never of any use to me. 

As to rewards from himself, I asked only one, 
which was that he would give orders to his officers 
not to enlist any more of our bought servants and that 
he would discharge such as had been already enlisted. 
This he readily granted, and several were accordingly 
returned to their masters on my application. Dunbar, 
when the command devolved on him, was not so 
generous. He being at Philadelphia on his retreat, or 
rather flight, I applied to him for the discharge of the 
servants of three poor farmers of Lancaster County 
that he had enlisted, reminding him of the late general's 
orders on that head. He promised me that if the 
masters w^ould come to him at Trenton, w^here he 
should be in a few davs on his march to New York, 
he would there deliver their men to them. They 
accordingly were at the expense and trouble of going 
to Trenton, and there he refused to perform his 
promise, to their great loss and disappointment. 

As soon as the loss of the wagons and horses was 
generally known, all the owners came upon me for the 
valuation which I had given bond^ to pay. Their de- 
mands gave me a great deal of trouble. I acquainted 
them that the money was ready in the paymaster's 
hands, bat the order for paying it must first be obtained 
from General Shirley, and that I had applied for it, 
but he being at a distance an answer could not soon 
be received, and they must have patience. All this, 
however, was not sufficient to satisfy them, and some 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 183 

began to sue me. General Shirley at length relieved 
me from this terrible situation hj appointing commis- 
sioners to examine the claims and ordering payment. 
They amounted to near twenty thousand pounds, 
which to pay would have ruined me. 

Before we had the news of this defeat, the two 
Doctors Bond came to me with a subscription paper 
for raising money to defray the expenses of a grand 
firework, which it was intended to exhibit at a rejoic- 
ing on receiving the news of our taking Fort Duquesne. 
I looked grave and said it would, I thought, be time 
enough to prepare the rejoicing when we knew we 
should have occasion to rejoice. They seemed sur- 
prised that I did not immediatel}^ comply Avith their 
proposal. " Why the d — 1 !" said one of them ; " you 
surely don't suppose that the fort will not be taken ?" 
"I don't know that it will not be taken, but I know 
that the events of war are subject to great uncer- 
tainty." I gave them the reasons of my doubting; 
the subscription was dropped, and the projectors there- 
by missed the mortification they would have under- 
gone if the firework had been prepared. Dr. Bond, 
on some other occasion afterward, said that he did not 
like Franklin's forebodings. 



184 A UTOBIOGBAPHY OF 



CHAPTEE XL 

GovERNOit MoREis, who had continually worried 
the Assembly with message after message before the 
defeat of Braddock, to beat them into the making of 
acts to raise money for the defense of the province 
without taxing among others the proprietary estates, 
and had rejected all their bills for not having such an 
exempting clause, now redoubled his attacks with 
more hope of success, the danger and necessity being 
greater. The Assembly, however, continued firm, be- 
lieving they had justice on their side, and that it 
would be giving up an essential right if they suffered 
the governor to amend their money bills. In one of 
the last, indeed, which was for granting fifty thousand 
pounds, his proposed amendment was only of a single 
word. The bill expressed that " all estates real and 
personal were to be taxed ; those of the proprietaries 
not excepted."*' His amendment was : for not^ read 
only, A small but very material alteration. How- 
ever, when the news of the disaster reached England, 
our friends there, whom we had taken care to furnish 
with all the Assembly's answers to the governor's 
messages, raised a clamor against the proprietaries for 
their meanness and injustice in giving their governor 
such instructions ; some going so far as to say that by 
obstructing the defense of their province they forfeited 
their right to it. They were intimidated by this, and 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 185 

sent orders to their Keceiver-General to add five 
thousand pounds of their monej to whatever sum 
might be given by the Assembly for such purpose. 

This being testified to the House was accepted in 
lieu of their share of a general tax ; and a new bill 
was formed with an exempting clause, which passed 
accordingly. , By this act I was appointed one of 
the commissioners for disposing of the money — sixty 
thousand pounds. I had been active in modeling the 
bill and procuring its passage, and had at the same 
time drawn one for establishing and disciplining a 
voluntary militia, which 1 carried through the House 
without much difficulty, as care was taken in it to 
leave the Quakers at liberty. To promote the associa- 
tion necessary to form the militia, I wrote a dialogue 
stating and answering all the objections I could think 
of to such a militia, which was printed, and had, as I 
thought, great effect. 

While the several companies in the city and country 
were forming and learning their exercise, the governor 
prevailed with me to take charge of our northwestern 
frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and 
provide for the defense of the inhabitants by raising 
troops and building a line of forts. I undertook this 
military business, though I did not conceive myself 
well qualified for it. He gave me a commission with 
full powers and a parcel of blank commissions for 
officers, to be given to whom I thought fit. I had but 
little difficulty in raising men, having soon five hundred 
and sixty under my command. My son, who had in 
the preceding war been an oiHcer in the army raised 
against Canada, was my aid-de-camp and of great use 
to me. The Indians had burned Gnadenhutten, d* 



18g AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

village settled by the Moravians, and massacred the 
inhabitants ; but the place was thought a good situation 
for one of the forts. 

In order to march thither, I assembled the com- 
panies at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of these 
people. I was surprised to jfind it in so good a posture 
of defense ; the destruction of Gnadenhutten had niade 
them apprehend danger. The principal buildings were 
defended by a stockade ; they had purchased i.. 
quantity of arms and ammunition from ISTew York, 
and had even placed quantities of small paving-stones 
between the windows of their high stone houses, for 
their women to throw them down upon the heads of 
any Indians that should attempt to force into them. 
The armed brethren, too, kept watch and relieved 
each other on guard as methodically as in any garrison 
town. In conversation with the bishop, Spangenberg, 
I mentioned my surprise ; for, knowing they had 
obtained an act of Parliament exempting them from 
military duties in the colonies, I had supposed they 
were conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms. He 
answered me that it was not one of their established 
principles ; but at the time of their obtaining that act 
it was thought to be a principle with manj^ of their 
people. On this occasion, however, they, to theii 
surprise, found it adopted by but few. It seemed they 
were either deceived in themselves or deceived the 
Parliament; but common sense, aided by present 
danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical 
opinions. 

It was the beginning of January when we set out 
upon this business of building forts. I sent one 
detachment toward the Minisink, with instructions to 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 187 

erect one for the security of that upper part of the 
country ; and another to the lower part, with similar 
instructions ; and I concluded to go myself with the 
rest of my force to Gnadenhutten, where a fort was 
thought more immediately necessary. The Moravians 
procured me five wagons for our tools, stores, and 
baggage. 

Just before we had left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, 
who had been driven from their plantations by the 
Indians, came to me requesting a supply of fire-arms, 
that they might go back and bring off their cattle. I 
gave them each a gun with suitable ammunition. We 
had not marched many miles before it began to rain, 
and it continued raining all day ; there were no habita- 
tions on the road to shelter us till we arrived near night 
at the house of a German, where, and in his barn, we 
were all huddled together, as wet as water could make 
us. It was well we were not attacked in our march, 
for our arms were of the most ordinary sort, and our 
men could not keep the locks of their guns dry. The 
Indians are dexterous in contrivances for that purpose, 
which we had not. They met that day the eleven 
poor farmers above mentioned, and killed ten of them. 
The one that escaped informed us that his and his 
companions' guns would not go off, the priming being 
wet with the rain. 

The next day being fair we continued our march, 
and arrived at the desolated Gnadenhutten. There 
was a mill near, round which were left several pine 
boards, with which we soon hutted ourselves ; an 
operation the more necessary at that inclement season, 
as we had no tents. Our first work was to bury more 
effectually the dead we found there, who had beeu 
half-interred by the country people. 



188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

The next morning our fort was planned and marked 
out, the circumference measuring four hundred and 
fifty -five feet, which would require as many palisades 
to be made, one with another, of a foot diameter each. 
Our axes, of which we had seventy, were immediately 
set to work to cut down trees, and our men being 
dexterous in the use of them, great dispatch was made. 
Seeing the trees fall so fast, I had the curiosity to look 
at my watch when two men began to cut at a pine ; 
in six minutes they had it upon the ground, and I 
found it of fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made 
three palisades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one 
end. While these were preparing our other men dug 
a trench all round, of three feet deep, in which the 
palisades were to be planted ; and the bodies being 
taken off our wagons and the fore and hind wheels 
separated by taking out the pin which united the two 
parts of the perch, we had ten carriages, with two 
horses each, to bring the palisades from the woods to 
the spot. When they were set up our carpenters built 
a platform of boards all round within, about six feet 
high, for the men to stand on when to fire through the 
loop-holes. We had one swivel gun, which we mounted 
on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as fixed, to 
let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, that 
we had such pieces ; and thus our fort, if that name 
may be given to so miserable a stockade, was finished 
in a week, though it rained so hard every other day 
that the men could not work. 

This gave me occasion to observe that when men are 
employed they are best contented ; for on the days 
they worked they were good-natured and cheerful, 
^xA with the consciousness of having done a good 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 189 

clay's work they spent the evening jollily ; but on' our 
idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding 
fault with the pork, the bread, etc., and were contin- 
ually in bad humor, which put me in mind of a sea- 
captain w^hose rule it was to keep his men constantly 
at work ; and when his mate once told him that they 
had done everything and there was nothing further to 
employ them about, '' Oh," said he, " make them scour 
the anchor." 

This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a suffi- 
cient defense against Indians, who have no cannon. 
Finding ourselves now posted securely and having a 
place to retreat to on occasion, we ventured out in 
parties to scour the adjacent country. We met with 
no Indians, but we found the places on the neighbor- 
ing hills where they had lain to Avatch our proceed- 
ings. There was an art in their contrivance of those 
places that seems worth mentioning. It being winter, 
a fire was necessary for them ; but a common fire on 
the surface of the ground would, by its light, have dis- 
covered their position at a distance. They had, there- 
fore, dug holes in the ground about three f^^^ in 
diameter and somewhat deeper ; we found wher- i hey 
had, with their hatchets, cut oflf the charcoa^ om the 
sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. \ . ith these 
coals they had made small fires in the bottom of the 
holes, and we observed among the weeds and grass the 
prints of their bodies, made by their lying all round 
with their legs hanging down in the holes to keep their 
feet warm, which, with them, is an essential point. 
This kind of fire so managed could not discover them, 
either by its light, flame, sparks, or even smoke. It 
appeared that the number was not great, and it seen^s 



190 A UTOBIOGEAPHY OF 

they tsaw we were too many to be attacked by them 
with prospect of advantage. 

We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian 
minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the 
men did not generally attend his prayers and exhorta- 
tions. Wheu they enlisted they were promised, 
besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which 
was punctually served out to them, half in the morn- 
ing and the other half in the evening, and I observed 
they were punctual in attending to receive it ; upon 
which 1 said to Mr. Beatty : " It is perhaps below the 
dignity of yo\xv profession to act as steward of the 
rum, but if you were only to distribute it out after 
prayers you would have them all about you." He 
liked the thought, undertook the task, and with the 
help of a few hands to measure out the liquor executed 
it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more gen- 
erally and more punctually attended. So that I 
think this method preferable to the punishment in- 
flicted by some military laws for non-attendance on 
divine service. 

I had hardly finished this business and got my 
fort well stored with provisions when I received a 
letter from the governor, acquainting me that he had 
called the Assembly, and wished my attendance there 
if the posture of affairs on the frontiers was such that 
my remaining there was no longer necessary. My 
friends, too, of the Assembly, pressing me by their 
letters to be, if possible, at the meeting, and my three 
intended forts being now compl^^ted and the inhab- 
itants contented to remain on thefr farms under that 
protection, I resolved to rettirn, the more willingly as 
a New England officer. Colonel Clapham^ experienced 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 191 

in Indian war, being on a visit to our establishment, 
consented to accept the command. I gave him a com- 
mission, and parading the garrison had it read before 
them and introduced him to them as an officer who, 
from his skill in military affairs, was much more fit to 
command them than myself, and giving them a little 
exhortation,, took my leave. I was escorted as far as 
Bethlehem, where I rested a few davs to recover from 
the fatigue 1 had undergone. The first night, lying in 
a good bed, I could hardly sleep, it was so different 
from my hard lodging on the floor of a hut at Gna- 
denhutten with only a blanket or two. 

While at Bethlehem I inquired a little into the 
practices of the Moravians ; some of them had accom- 
panied me and all were very kind to me. I found 
thev worked for a common stock, eat at common 
tables, and slept in common dormitories, great num- 
bers together. In the dormitories I observed loop- 
holes at certain distances all along just under the 
ceiling, which I thought judiciously placed for change 
of air. I went to their church, where I was enter- 
tained with good music, the organ being accompanied 
with violins, hautboys, flutes, clarinets, etc. I under- 
s-ood their sermons were not usually preached to 
mixed congregations of men, women, and children, as 
is our common practice, but that they assembled, 
sometimes the married men, at other times their 
wives, then the young men, the young women, and 
the little children ; each division by itself. The ser- 
mon I heard w^as to the latter, who came in and were 
placed in rows on benches ; the boys under the con- 
duct of a young man, their tutor, and the girls con- 
ducted by a young woman. The discourse seemed 



192 A UTOBIOGRAPHY Op 

well adapted to their capacities, and was delivered in 
a pleasing, familiar manner, coaxing them, as it were, 
to be good. They behaved very orderly, but looked 
pale and unhealthy, which made me suspect they were 
kept too much within doors or not allowed sufficient 
exercise. 

I inquired concerning the Moravian marriages, 
whether the report was true that they were by lot. 
I was told that lots were used only in particular cases ; 
that generally when a young man found himself dis- 
posed to marry he informed the elders of his class, 
who consulted the elder ladies that governed the 
young women. As these elders of the different sexes 
were well acquainted with the tempers and disposi- 
tions of their respective pupils, they could best judge 
what matches were suitable, and their judgments were 
generally acquiesced in. But if, for example, it should 
happen that two or three young women w^ere found to 
be equally proper for the young man, the lot was then 
recurred to. I objected if the matches are not made 
hy the mutual choice of the parties, some of them 
may chance to be very unhappy. "And so they 
may," answered my informer, '' if you let the parties 
choose for themselves." Which indeed I could not 
deny. 

Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the associa- 
tion went on with great success. The inhabitants 
that were not Quakers having pretty generally come 
mto it formed themselves into companies, and chose 
their captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, according to 
the new law. Dr. Bond visited me and gave me an 
account of the pains he had taken to spread a general 
good liking of the law, and ascribed much to those 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 193 

endeavori. I had the vanity to ascribe all to my 
" Dialogue ;" however, not knowing but that he might 
be in the right, I let him enjoy his opinion, which I 
take to be generally the best way in such cases. The 
olficers, meeting, chose me to be colonel of the regi- 
mentjwhich I this time accepted. I forget how many 
companies we had, but we paraded about twelve hun- 
dred well-looking men, with a company of artillery, 
who had been furnished with six brass field-pieces, 
which they had become so expert in the use of as to 
fire twelve times in a minute. The first time I re- 
viewed my regiment they accompanied me to my 
house, and would salute me with some rounds fired 
before my door, which shook down and broke several 
glasses of my electrical apparatus. And my new 
honor proved not much less brittle ; for all our com- 
missions were soon after broken by a repeal of the 
law in England. 

During this short time of my colonelship, being 
about to set out on a journey to Virginia, the oflBcers of 
my regiment took it into their heads that it would be 
proper for them to escort me out of town as far as the 
Lower Ferry. Just as I was getting on horseback 
they came to my door, between thirty and forty, 
mounted, and all in their uniforms. I had not been pre- 
viously acquainted with their project, or I should have 
prevented it, being naturally averse to the assuming of 
state on any occasion ; and I was a good deal 
chagrined at their appearance, as I could not avoid 
their accompanying me. What made it worse was 
that as soon as we began to move they drew their 
swords and rode with them naked all the way. Some- 
body wrote an account of this to the proprietor, and 



194 AtltOBIOaBAPHY OF 

it gave him great offense. No such honor had been 
paid to him when in the province nor to any of his 
governors, and he said it was only proper to princes 
of the blood royal ; which may be true for aught I 
know, who was, and still am, ignorant of the etiquette 
in such cases. 

This silly affair, however, greatly increased his 
rancor against me, which was before considerable on 
account of my conduct in the Assembly respecting the 
exemption of his estate from taxation, which I had 
always opposed very warmly, and not without severe 
reflections on the meanness and injustice of contend- 
ing for it. He accused me to the ministry as being 
the great obstacle to the king's service, preventing by 
my influence in the House the proper form of the bills 
for raising money ; and he instanced the parade with 
my officers as a proof of my having an intention to 
take the government of the province out of his hands 
by force. He also applied to Sir Everard Fawkener, 
the Postmaster-General, to deprive me of my office. 
But it had no other effect than to procure from Sir 
Everard a gentle admonition. 

Notwithstanding the continual wrangle between the 
governor and the House, in which I as a member had 
so large a share, there still subsisted a civil intercourse 
between that gentleman and myself, and we never had 
any personal difference. I have sometimes since 
thought that his little or no resentment against me for 
the answers it was known I drew up to his messages 
might be the effect of professional habit, and that, 
being bred a lawyer, he might consider us both as 
merely advocates for contending clients in a suit ; he 
for the proprietaries and I for the Assembly, Ho 



BENJAMIN FRANKLY. 1^6 

would therefore sometimes call in a friendly way to 
advise with me on difficult points, and sometimes, 
though not often, take my advice. 

We acted in concert to supply Braddock's army with 
provisions, and when the shocking news arrived of 
his defeat the governor sent in haste for me, to consult 
with him on measures for preventing the desertion of 
the back counties. 1 forgot now the advice I gave ; 
but I think it was that Dunbar should be written to 
and prevailed with, if possible, to post his troops on 
the frontiers for their protection, until by reenforce- 
ments from the colonies he might be able to proceed 
in the expedition. And after my return from the 
frontier he would have had me undertake the conduct 
of such an expedition with provincial troops for the 
reduction of Fort Duquesne, Dunbar and his men 
being otherwise employed ; and he proposed to com- 
mission me as general. I had not so good an opinion 
of my military abilities as he professed to have, and I 
believe his professions must have exceeded his real 
sentiments ; but probably he might think that my 
popularity would facilitate the business with the men 
and influence in the Assembly the grant of money to 
pay for it, and that, perhaps, without taxing the 
proprietary. Finding me not so forward to engage 
as he expected, the project was dropped, and he soon 
after left the government, being superseded by Cap- 
tain Denny. 

Before I proceed in relating the part I had in 
public affairs under this new governor's administration, 
it may not be amiss to give here some account of the 
rise and progress of my philosophical reputation. 

In 1746, being in Boston, I met there with a Dr. 



196 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

Sp«n#e, who was lately arrived from Sootland and 
showed me some electric experiments. They were 
imperfectly performed, as he was not very expert; 
but being on a subject quite new to me, they equally 
surprised and pleased me. Soon after my return to 
Philadelphia our library company received from Mr. 
Peter Collinson, Fellow of the Eoyal Society of 
London, a present of a glass tube, with some account 
of the use of it in making such experiments. I eagerly 
seized the opportunity of repeating what I had seen 
at Boston, and by much practice acquired great readi- 
ness in performing those also which we had an account 
of from England, adding a number of new ones. I 
say much practice, for my house was continually full 
for some time with persons who came to see these new 
wonders. 

To divide a little this incumbrance among my 
friends I caused a number of similar tubes to be blown 
in our glass-house, with which they furnished them- 
selves, so that we had at length several performers. 
Among these the principal was Mr. Kinnersley, an 
ingenious neighbor, who, being out of business, I 
encouraged him to undertake showing the experi- 
ments for money, and drew up for him two lectures, 
in which the experiments were ranged in such order 
and accompanied with explanations in such method 
as that the foregoing should assist in comprehending 
the following. He procured an elegant apparatus for 
the purpose, in which all the little machines that I 
had roughly made for myself were neatly formed by 
instrument makers. His lectures were well attended 
and gave great satisfaction ; and after some time he 
went through the colonies, exhibiting them in every 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 197 

capital town, and picked up some money. In the 
West India Islands, indeed, it was with difficulty th« 
experiments could be made, from the general mois- 
ture of the air. 

Obliged as we were to Mr. Collinson for the present 
of the tube, etc., I thought it right he should be in- 
formed of our success in using it, and wrote him sev- 
eral letters containing accounts of our experiments. 
He got them read in the Eoyal Society, where they 
were not at first thought worth so much notice as to 
be printed in their " Transactions." One paper which 
I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the sameness of light- 
ning with electricity, I sent to Mr. Mitchel, an 
acquaintance of mine and one of the members also of 
that society, who wrote me word that it had been 
read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The 
papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he 
thought them of too much value to be stifled and ad- 
vised the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave 
them to Cave for publication in his GentlemarCs Maga- 
zine^ but he chose to print them separately in a pam- 
phlet, and Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it 
seems, judged rightly for his profession, for by the ad- 
ditions that arrived afterward they swelled to a 
quarto volume, which has had five editions and cost 
him nothing for copy-money. 

It was, however, some time before those papers 
were much taken notice of in England. A copy of 
them happening to fall into the hands of the Count de 
Buffon, a philosopher, deservedly of great reputation 
in France and indeed aU over Europe, he prevailed 
with M. Dubourg to translate them into French and 
they were printed at Paris. The publication offended 



59e AUTOBIOGRAPHT 0» 

the Abbe NoUet, preceptor in natural philosophy to 
the royal family and an able experimenter, who had 
formed and published a theory of electricity, which 
then had the general vogue. He could not at first be- 
lieve that such a work came from America, and said 
it must have been fabricated by his enemies at Paris 
to oppose his system. Afterward, having been 
assured that there really existed such a person as 
Franklin at Philadelphia, which he had doubted, he 
wrote and published a volume of letters, chiefly 
addressed to me, defending his theory and denying 
the verity of my experiments and of the positions de- 
duced from them. 

I once purposed answering the abbe and actually 
began the answer ; but on consideration that my 
writings contained a description of experiments which 
any one might repeat and verify, and, if not to be 
verified, could not be defended, or of observations 
offered as conjectures and not delivered dogmatically, 
therefore not laying me under any obligation to de- 
fend them, and reflecting that a dispute between two 
persons, written in different languages, might be 
lengthened greatly by mistranslations, and thence 
misconceptions of one another's meaning, much of one 
of the abbe's letters being founded on an error in the 
translation, I concluded to let my papers shift for 
themselves, believing it was better to spend 
what time I could spare from public business in making 
new experiments than in disputing about those 
already made. I therefore never answered M. JSTollet, 
and the event gave me no cause to repent my silence ; 
for my friend M. Le Roy, of the Royal Academy of 
Sciences, took up my cause and refuted him ; my book 



BEirjAMm FRANKLm. 189 

was translated into the Italian, German, and Latin 
languages, and the doctrine it contained was by de- 
grees generally adopted by the philosophers of 
Europe in preference to that of the abbfe, so that he 
lived to see himself the last of his sect except M. 
B J of Paris, his Sieve and immediate disciple. 

"What gave my book the more sudden and general 
celebrity was the success of one of its proposed ex- 
periments, made by MM. Dalibard and De Lor at 
Marley, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This 
engaged the public attention everywhere. M. De 
Lor, who had an apparatus for experimental philoso- 
phy and lectured in that branch of science, undertook 
to repeat what he called the Philadelphia experi- 
ments; and after they were performed before the 
king and court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see 
them. I will not swell this narrative with an account 
of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure 
I received in the success of a similar one I made soon 
after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be 
found in the histories of electricity. 

Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris 
wrote to a friend, who was one of the Royal Society, 
an account of the high esteem my experiments were 
in among the learned abroad, and of their wonder that 
my writings had been so little noticed in England. 
The society on this resumed the consideration of the 
letters that had been read to them, and the celebrated 
Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them and 
of all I had afterward sent to England on the subject, 
which he accompanied with some praise of the writer. 
This summary was then printed in their " Transac- 
tions ;" and some members of the society in London, 



200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton, having 
verified the experiment of procuring lightning from 
the clouds by a pointed rod and acquainted them with 
the success, they soon made me more than amends for 
the slight with which they had before treated me. 
Without my having made any application for that 
honor they chose me a member, and voted that f 
should be excused the customary payments, which 
would have amounted to twenty-five guineas ; and ever 
since have given me their " Transactions " gratis."^ 

* Dr. Franklin gives a further account of his election in a 
letter to his son, Governor Franklin, from which the following is 
an extract: 

*' London, 19th December, 1767. 

'* We have had an ugly affair at the Royal Society lately. One 
Dacosta, a Jew, who, as our clerk, was intrusted with collecting 
our moneys, had been so unfaithful as to embezzle near thirteen 
hundred pounds in four years. Being one of the council this 
year, as well as the last, I have been employed all the last week 
in attending the inquiry into and unraveling his accounts, in 
order to come at a full knowledge of his frauds. His securities 
are bound in one thousand pounds to the society, which they will 
pay, but we shall probably lose the rest. He had this year 
received twenty-six admission payments of twenty-five guineas 
each, which he did not bring to account. 

** While attending to thisa ffair I had an opportunity of looking 
over the old council-books and journals of the society, and having 
a curiosity to see how I came in, of which I had never been 
informed, I looked back for the minutes relating to it. You 
must know it is not usual to admit persons that have not re- 
quested to be admitted; and a recommendatory certificate in 
favor of the candidate, signed by at least three of the members, is 
by our rule to be presented to the society, expressing that he is 
desirous of that honor, and is so and so qualified. As I never 
had asked or expected the honor, I was, as I said before, curious 
to see how the business was managed, 1 found that the certificate. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 201 

They also presented me with the gold medal of Sir 
Godfrey Copley for the year 1753, the delivery of 
which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of 
the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly 
honored. 

worded very advantageously for me, was signed by Lord Mac- 
clesfield, then president, Lord Parker, and Lord Willougbby; that 
the election was by a unanimous vote; and the honor being 
voluntarily conferred by the society, unsolicited by me, it was 
thought wrong to demand or receive the usual fees or composi- 
tion; so that my name was entered on the list with a vote of 
council that I was not to pay anything. And accordingly 
nothing has ever been demanded of me. Those who are admitted 
in the common way pay five guineas admission fees and two 
guineas and a half yearly contributions, or twenty-five guineas 
down in lieu of it. In my case a substantial favor accompanied 
the honor."— W. T. F. 



308 A UT0BI0QRAPM7 OF 



CHAPTER XII. 

Our new governor, Captain Denny, brought over 
for me the before-mentioned medal from the Royal 
Society, which he presented to me at an entertainment 
given him by the city. He accompanied it with very 
polite expressions of his esteem for me, having, as he 
said, been long acquainted with my character. After 
dinner, when the company, as was customary at that 
time, were engaged in drinking, he took me aside in 
another room, and acquainted me that he had been 
advised by his friends in England to cultivate a friend- 
ship with me, as one who was capable of giving him 
the best advice and of contributing most effectually to 
the making his administration easy. That he therefore 
desired of all things to have a good understanding with 
me, and he begged me to be assured of his readiness 
on all occasions to render me every service that might 
be in his power. He said much to me also of the 
proprietor's good disposition toward the province, and 
of the advantage it would be to us all, and to me in 
particular, if the opposition that had been so long 
continued to his measures were dropped and harmony 
restored between him and the people, in effecting 
which it was thought no one could be more serviceable 
than myself ; and I might depend on adequate 
acknowledgments and recompenses. The drinkers, 
finding we did uot return immediately to the tablcj 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 303 

sent us a decanter of Madeira, which the governor 
madie a liberal use of, and in proportion became nior« 
profuse of his solicitations and promises. 

My answers were to this purpose : that my circum- 
stances, thanks to God, were such as to make proprie- 
tary favors unnecessary to me ; and that, being a 
member of the Assembly, I could not possibly accept 
of any; that, however, I had no personal enmity to 
the proprietary, and that whenever the public measures 
he proposed should appear to be for the good of the 
people, no one would espouse and forward them more 
zealously than myself ; my past opposition having been 
founded on this, that the measures which had been 
urged were evidently intended to serve the proprietary 
interest, with great prejudice to that of the people. 
That I was much obliged to him (the governor) for his 
profession of regard to me, and he might rely on 
everything in my power to render his administration 
as easy to him as possible, hoping at the same time 
that he had not brought with him the same unfor- 
tunate instructions his predecessors had been hampered 
with. 

On this he did not then explain himself ; but when he 
afterward came to do business with the Assembly they 
appeared again, the disputes were renewed, and I was 
as active as ever in the opposition, being the penman, 
i3rst of the request to have a communication of the 
instructions, and then of the remarks upon them, 
which may be found in the votes of the times and in 
the '' Historical Eeview " I afterward published. But 
between us personally no enmity arose ; we were often 
together ; he was a man of letters, had seen much of 
the world, and was entertaining and pleasing in ton- 



304 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

versation. He gave me information that my old 
friend Ealph was stillalive ; that he was esteemed one 
of the best political writers in England; had been em- 
ployed in the dispute between Prince Frederick and 
the king, and had obtained a pension of three hundred 
pounds a year ; that his reputation was indeed small 
as a poet, Pope having damned his poetry in the 
" Dunciad ;" but his prose was thought as good as any 
man's. 

The Assembly finally finding the proprietary ob- 
stinately persisted in shackling the deputies with in- 
structions inconsistent, not only with the privileges of 
the people, but with the service of the crown, resolved 
to petition the king against them, and appointed me 
their agent to go over to England to present and sup- 
port the petition. The House had sent up a bill to the 
governor, granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds 
for the king's use (ten thousand pounds of which was 
subjected to the orders of the then general, Lord Lou- 
doun), which the governor, in compliance with his in- 
structions, absolutely refused to pass. 

I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the packet at 
New York, for my passage, and my stores were put 
on board, when Lord Loudoun arrived at Philadelphia, 
expressly, as he told me, to endeavor an accommoda- 
tion between the governor and Assembly, that his 
majesty's service might not be obstructed by their dis- 
sensions. Accordingly he desired the governor and 
myself to meet him, that he might hear what was to 
be said on both sides. We met and discussed the busi- 
ness. In behalf of the Assembly I urged the various 
arguments that may be found in the public papers of 
that time^ which were of my writing and are printed 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 205 

with the minutes of the Assembly ; and the governor 
pleaded his instructions, the bond he had given to ob- 
serve them, and his ruin if he disobeyed, yet seemed 
not unwilling to hazard himself if Lord Loudoun would 
advise it. This his lordship did not choose to do, 
though I once thought I had nearly prevailed with 
him to do it ; but finally he rather chose to urge the 
compliance of the Assembly ; and he entreated me to 
use my endeavors with them for that purpose, declar- 
ing that he would spare none of the king's troops for 
the defense of our frontiers, and that if we did not 
continue to provide for that defense ourselves they 
must remain exposed to the enemy. 

I acquainted the House with what had passed, and 
presenting them with a set of resolutions I had drawn 
up declaring our rights, that we did not relinquish our 
claim to those rights, but only suspended the exercise 
of them on this occasion through force^ against which 
we protested, they at length agreed to drop that bill 
and frame another conformable to the proprietary in- 
structions. This, of course, the governor passed, and 
I was then at liberty to proceed on my voyage ; but 
in the mean time the packet had sailed with my sea- 
stores, which was some loss to me, and my only recom- 
pense was his lordship's thanks for my service, all 
the credit of obtaining the accommodation falling to 
his share. 

He set out for New York before me, and as the 
time for dispatching the packet-boats was at his dis- 
position and there were two then remaining there, 
one of which, he said, was to sail very soon, I re- 
quested to know the precise time, that I might not 
miss her by any delay of mine. The answer was : " I 



206 AUTOBIOQEAPHr OF 

have given out that she is to sail on Saturday next ; 
but I may let you know/ entre nous^ that if you are 
there by Monday morning you will be in time, but do 
not delay longer." By some accidental hindrance 
at a ferry it was Monday noon befere I arrived, and I 
was much afraid she might have sailed, as the wind 
was fair ; but I was soon made easy by the informa- 
tion that she was still in the harbor, and would not 
move till the next day. One would imagine that I 
was now on the very point of departing for Europe. 
I thouo^ht so ; but I was not then so well acquainted 
with his lordship's character, of which indecision was 
one of his strongest features. I shall give some in- 
stances. It was about the beginning of April that I 
came to New York, and I think it was near the end 
of June before we sailed. There were then two of 
the packet-boats, which had been long in readiness, 
but were detained for the general's letters, which 
were always to be ready to-morrow. Another packet 
arrived. She, too, was detained, and before we sailed 
a fourth was expected. Ours was the first to be dis- 
patched as having been there the longest. Passengers 
were engaged for all, and some extremely impatient to 
be gone and the merchants uneasy about their letters, 
and for the orders they had given for insurance (it 
being war-time) and for autumnal goods ; but their 
anxiety availed nothing. His lordship's letters were 
not ready, and yet whoever waited on him found him 
always at his desk, pen in hand, and concluded he 
must needs write abundantly. 

Going myself one morning to pay my respects, I 
found in his antechamber one Innis, a messenger of 
Philadelphia, who had come thence express, with a 



BSJFJAMIN FRANKLm. 307 

packet from Governor Denny for the general. He 
delivered to me some letters from my friends there, 
which occasioned my inquiring when he was to return 
and where he lodged, that I might send some letters 
by him. He told me he was ordered to call to-mor- 
row at nine for the general's answer to the governor, 
and should set off immediately. I put my letters into 
his hands the same day. A fortnight after I met him 
again in the same place. " So you are soon returned, 
Innis ?" " Keturned ! no, I am not gone yet." " How 
so?" "I have called here this and every morning 
these two weeks past for his lordship's letters, and 
they are not yet ready." " Is it possible, when he is 
so great a writer ? for I see him constantly at his 
escritoire." " Yes," said Innis, " but he is like St. 
George on the signs, always on horsebacTc and never rides 
onP This observation of the messenger was, it seems, 
well founded ; for when in England I understood that 
Mr. Pitt, afterward Lord Chatham, gave it as one reason 
for removing this general and sending Generals Am- 
herst and Wolfe, that the minister never heard from 
him and could not know v)hat he was doing. 

In this daily expectation of sailing, and all the three 
packets going down to Sandy Hook to join the fleet 
there, the passengers thought it best to be on board, 
lest by a sudden order the ships should sail and they be 
left behind. There, if I remember, we were about six 
weeks, consuming our sea-stores and obliged to pro- 
cure more. At length the fleet sailed, the general and 
all his army on board, bound to Louisbourg, with intent 
to besiege and take that fortress; and all the packet- 
boats in company were ordered to attend the general's 
ship, ready to receive his dispatches when they should 



208 ^ UTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

be ready. We were out five days before we got a 
letter with leave to part, and then our ship quitted the 
fleet and steered for England. The other two packets 
he still detained, carried them with him to Halifax, 
where he stayed some time to exercise the men in 
sham attacks upon sham forts, then altered his mind 
as to besieging Louisbourg and returned to New York 
with all his troops, together with the two packets 
above mentioned and all their passengers! During 
his absence the French and savages had taken Fort 
George, on the frontier of that province, and the In- 
dians had massacred many of the garrison after capit- 
ulation. 

On the whole, I wondered much how such a man 
came to be intrusted with so important a business as 
the conduct of a great army ; but having since seen 
more of the great world and the means of obtaining 
and motives for giving places and employments, my 
wonder is diminished. General Shirley, on whom the 
command of the army devolved upon the death of 
Braddock, would, in my opinion, if continued in place 
have made a much better campaign than that of 
Loudoun in 1756, which was frivolous, expensive, and 
^ disgraceful to our nation beyond conception. For 
' though Shirley was not bred a soldier, he was sensible 
and sagacious in himself and attentive to good advice 
from others, capable of forming judicious plans and 
quick and active in carrying them into execution. 
Loudoun, instead of defending the colonies with his 
great army, left them totally exposed while he paraded 
idly at Halifax, by which means Fort George was 
lost ; besides, he deranged all our mercantile opera- 
tions and distressed our trade by a long embargo on. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 26& 

the exportation of provisioDS, on pretense of keeping 
supplies from being obtained by the enemy, but in 
reality for beating down their pric^ in favor of the 
contractors, in whose profits it was said, perhaps from 
suspicion only, he had a share ; and when at length 
the embargo was taken off, neglecting to send notice 
of it to Charleston, where the Carolina fleet was 
detained near three months, and whereby their bot- 
toms were so much damaged by the worm that a great 
part of them foundered in their passage home. 

Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being re- 
lieved from so burdensome a charge as the conduct of 
an army must be to a man unacquainted w^ ith military 
business. I was at the entertainment given by the city 
of New York to Lord Loudoun on his taking upon him 
the command. Shirley, though thereby superseded, 
was present also. There was a great company of 
oflElcers, citizens, and strangers, and some chairs having 
been borrowed in the neighborhood, there was one 
among them very low, which fell to the lot of Mr. 
Shirley. I sat by him, and perceiving it I said : 
" They have have given you a very low seat." " No 
matter, Mr. Franklin," said he ; " I find a low seat the 
easiest." 

While I was, as before mentioned, detained at New 
York, I received all the accounts of the provisions, 
etc., that I had furnished to Braddock, some of which 
accounts could not sooner be obtained from the differ- 
ent persons I had employed to assist in the business. 
I presented them to Lord Loudoun, desiring to be paid 
the balance. He caused them to be examined- by the 
proper officer, who, after comparing every article with 
\ts voucher^ certified them to be right; and his lord* 



210 ^ VToBioanApB r of 

ship promised to give me an order on the paymaster 
for the balance due to me. This was, however, put 
off from time to time, and though I called often for it 
by appointment, I did not get it. At length, just be- 
fore my departure, he told me he had, on better con- 
sideration, concluded not to mix his accounts with 
those of his predecessors. " And you," said he, " when 
in England, have only to exhibit your accounts to the 
Treasury and you will be paid immediately." 

I mentioned, but without effect, a great and unex- 
pected expense I had been put to by being detained so 
long at New York as a reason for ray desiring to be 
presently paid, and on my observing that it was not 
right I should be put to any further trouble or delay 
in obtaining the money I had advanced, as I charged 
no commission for my service, "Oh," said he, "you 
must not think of persuading us that you are no 
gainer ; we understand better those matters and know 
that every one concerned in supplying the army finds 
means, in the doing it, to fill his own pockets." I 
assured him that was not my case and that I had not 
pocketed a farthing ; but he appeared clearly not to 
believe me, and indeed, I afterward learned that im- 
mense fortunes are often made in such employments. 
As to my balance, I am not paid it to this day ; of 
which more hereafter. 

Our captain of the packet boasted much, before we 
sailed, of the swiftness of his ship ; unfortunately, 
when we came to sea she proved the dullest of ninety- 
aix sail, to his no small mortification. After many 
conjectures respecting the cause, when we were near 
another ship, almost as dull as ours, which, however, 
gained upon us, the captain ordered all hands to come 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIK JU 

aft and stand as near the ensign staff as possible. ' We 
were, passengers included, about forty persons. 
While we stood there the ship mended her pace and 
soon left her neighbor far behind, which proved clearly 
what our captain suspected — that she was loaded too 
much by the head. The casks of water, it seems, had 
been all placed forward ; these he therefore ordered 
to be moved further aft, on which the ship recovered 
her character and proved the best sailer in the fleet. 

The captain said she had once gone at the rate of 
thirteen knots, which is accounted thirteen miles per 
hour. We had on board as a passenger Captain Archi- 
bald Kennedy, of the Eoyal Navy, who contended 
that it was impossiole ; that no ship ever sailed so fast, 
and that there must have been some error in the 
division of the log-line or some mistake in heaving the 
log, A wager ensued between the two captains, to be 
decided when there should be sufficient wind. Kennedy 
therefore examined the log-line, and being satisfied 
with it he determined to throw the log himself. Some 
days after, when the wind was very fair and fresh, 
and the captain of the packet, Lutwidge, said he 
believed she then went at the rate of thirteen knots, 
Kennedy made the experiment and owned his wager 
lost. 

The foregoing fact I give for the sake of the 
following observation. It has been remarked as an 
imperfection in the art of ship-building that it can 
never be known till she is tried whether a new ship 
will or will not be a good sailer ; for that the model 
of a good sailing-ship has been exactly followed in a 
new one, which has been proved on the contrary 
remarkably dull, I apprehend that this may partly 



212 AUTOBIOGBAPBY OP 

be occasioned by the different opinions of seamen 
respecting ttie modes of loading, rigging, and sailing 
of a ship. Each has his method ; and the same vessel, 
laden by the method and orders of one captain, shall 
sail worse than when by the orders of. another. Be- 
sides, it scarce ever happens that a ship is formed, 
fitted for the sea, and sailed by the same person. One 
men builds the hull, another rigs her, a third loads and 
sails her. No one of these has the advantage of 
knowing all the ideas and experience of the others, and 
therefore cannot draw just conclusions from a com- 
bination of the whole. 

Even in the simple operation of sailing, when at sea 
1 have often observed different judgments in the 
officers who commanded the successive watches, the 
wind being the same. One would have the sails 
trimmed sharper or fiatter than another, so that they 
seemed to have no certain rules to govern by. Yet I 
think a set of experiments might be instituted, first, to 
determine the most proper form of the hull for swift 
sailing; next, the best dimensions and most proper 
place for the masts ; then the form and quantity of 
sails and their position, as the winds may be ; and 
lastly, the disposition of the lading. This is an age of 
'experiments, and I think a set accurately made and 
combined would be of great use. 

We were several times chased in our passage, but 
outsailed everything, and in thirty days had soundings. 
We had a good observation, and the captain judged 
himself so near our port, Falmouth, that if we made a 
good run in the night we might be off the mouth of 
that harbor in the morning ; and by running in the 
night might escape the notice of the enemy's priva- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 213 

teers, who often cruised near the entrance of the 
Ohannel. Accordingly all the sail was set that we 
could possibly carry, and the wind being very fresh 
and fair, we stood right before it and made great way. 
The captain, after his observation, shaped his course, 
as he thought, so as to pass wide of the Scilly Eocks ; 
but it seems there is sometimes a strong current setting 
up St. George's Channel, which formerly caused the 
loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squadron in 1707. This 
was probably also the cause of what happened to us. 

We had a watchman placed in the bow, to whom 
they often called, '-' Look well out hefore there^'^ and he 
as often answered " Ay., ayf^ but perhaps had his eyes 
shut and was half -asleep at the time, they sometimes 
answering, as is said, mechanically; for he did not see 
a light just before us, which had been hid by the 
studding-sails from the man at the helm and from the 
rest of the watch, but by an accidental yaw of the 
ship was discovered and occasioned a great alarm, we 
being very near it ; the light appearing to me as large 
as a cart-wheel. It was midnight and our captain fast 
asleep ; but Captain Kennedy, jumping upon deck and 
seeing the danger, ordered the ship to wear round, all 
sails standing ; an operation dangerous to the masts, 
but it carried us clear and we avoided shipwreck, for 
we were running fast on the rocks, on which the light 
was erected. This deliverance impressed me strongly 
with the utility of light-houses, and made me resolve 
to encourage the building some of them in America if 
I should live to return thither. 

In the morning it was found by the soundings that 
we were near our port, but a thick fog hid the land 
from our sight. About nine o'clock the fog began to 



2U AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLOf. 

rise, and seemed to be lifted up from the water like a 
curtain of a theater, discovering underneath the town 
of Falmouth, the vessels in the harbor, and the fields 
that surround it. This was a pleasing spectacle to 
those who had been long without any other prospect 
than the uniform view of a vacant ocean, and it gave 
us the more pleasure, as we were now free from the 
anxieties which had arisen."^ 

I set out immediately with my son for London, and 
we only stopped a little by the way to view Stone- 
henge on Salisbury Plain, and Lord Pembroke's house 
and gardens, with the very curious antiquities, at 
Wilton. We arrived in London the 27th of July, 1757. 

* In a letter from Dr. Franklin to his wife, dated at Falmouth, 
the 17th of July, 1757, after giving her a similar account of his 
voyage, escape, and landing, he adds: ''The bell ringing for 
church we went thither immediately, and with hearts full of 
gratitude returned sincere thanks to God for the mercies we had 
received. Were I a Koman Catholic, perhaps I should on this 
occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint; but as I am not, 
if I were to vow at all it should be to build a Ught-hotise.'^^ — 
W, T. F. 



mrD OF AUTOBIOGRAPHT, 



POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 



AND 



OTHER PAPERS. 



In the early days of onr coantfy almanacs were a popular 
form of literature. Almost every farmer had an almanac hang- 
ing near the fireplace. These almanacs usually contained a 
monthly calendar, movements of the heavenly bodies, and a 
variety of information and useful literature. Franklin began 
the publication of such an almanac in 1732 and continued it 
for twenty-five years, claiming it was written by one Richard 
Saunders. In his almanac Franklin began his proverbs with the 
phrase Poor Richard says, as if he were quoting from Richard 
Saunders, and thus the almanac came to be called Poor Richard's 
Almanac, 

^' These proverbs," says Franklin, " which contain the wisdom 
of many ages and nations, I assembled and formed into a con- 
nected discourse, prefixed to the almanac of 1757, as the 
harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. 
The bringing all these scattered counsels thus into a focus 
enabled them to make greater impression. The piece, being 
universally approved, was copied in all the newspapers of the 
continent and reprinted in Britain on a broadside, to be stuck 
up in houses; two translations were made of it in French and 
great numbers bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute 
gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsyl- 
vania, as it discouraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, 
some thought it had its share of influence in producing that 
growing plenty of money which was observable for several years 
after its publication." 

The pages which follow were prefixed to the almanac of 1757. 



POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC. 



Courteous Reader: I have heard that nothing 
gives an author so great pleasure as to find his works 
respectfully quoted by other learned authors. This 
pleasure I have seldom enjoyed. For though I have 
been, if I may say it without vanity, an eminent 
author of almanacs annually now for a full quarter of 
a century, my brother authors in the same way, for 
what reason 1 know not, have ever been very sparing 
in their applauses, and no other author has taken the 
least notice of me ; so that did not my writings pro- 
duce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of 
praise would have quite discouraged me. 

I concluded at length that the people were the best 
judges of my merit, for they buy my works ; and be- 
sides, in my rambles, where I am not personally 
known I have frequently heard one or other of my 
adages repeated, with as Poor Richard says at the 
end of it. This gave me some satisfaction, as it 
showed not only that my instructions were regarded, 
but discovered likewise some respect for my author- 
ity ; and I own that to encourage the practice of 
remembering and repeating those sentences, I have 
sometimes quoted myself with great gravity. 

Judge, then, how much I must have been gratified 
by an incident I am going to relate to you. I stopped 
pay horse lately where a great number of people were. 



220 -^ UTOBIOGRAPEY OF 

collected at a vendue of merchant's goods. The hour 
of sale not being come, they were conversing on the 
badness of the times ; and one of the company called 
to a plain, clean old man with white locks, " Pray, 
Father Abraham, what think you of the times ? Won't 
these heavy taxes quite ruin the country ? How shall 
we ever be able to pay them ? What would you ad- 
vise us to ?" Father Abraham stood up and replied : 
"If you would have my ad dee, I will give it you in 
short ; for ' a word to the wise is enough,' and ' many 
words won't fill a bushel,' as Poor Richard says." 
They all joined, desiring him to speak his mind, and 
gathering round him he proceeded as follows : 

Friends and neighbors, the taxes are indeed very 
heavy, and if those laid on by the government were 
the only ones we had to pay, we might the more easil}^ 
discharge them ; but we have many others, and much 
more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as 
much by our idleness, three times as much by our 
PEiDE, and four times as much by our folly ; and from 
these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver 
us by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken 
to good advice, and something may be done for us. 
"God helps them that help themselves," as Poor 
Richard says in his almanac of 1733. 

It would be thought a hard government that should 
tax its people one-tenth part of their time, to be em- 
ployed in its service, but idleness taxes many of us 
much more, if we reckon all that is spent in absolute 
sloth or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in 
idle employments or amusements that amount to 
nothing. Sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely 
shortens life, " Sloth^ like rust, consumes faster than 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 221 

labor wears ; while the used key is always bright," as 
Poor Eichard says. " But dost thou love life ? then do 
not squander time, for that's the*stuff life is made of/' 
as Poor Richard savs. 

How much more than is necessary do we spend in 
sleep ? forgetting that " the sleeping fox catches no 
poultry," and that " there will be sleeping enough in 
the grave," as Poor Richard says. If time be of all 
things the most precious, ''' wasting of time must be," 
as Poor Richard says, " the greatest prodigality ;" 
since, as he elsewhere tells us, " lost time is never found 
again," and what we call " time enough ! always proves 
little enough." Let us, then, up and be doing, and 
doing to the purpose ; so by diligence shall we do 
more with less perplexity. " Sloth makes all things 
difficult, but industry all things easy," as Poor Richard 
says ; and " he that riseth late must trot all day, and 
shall scarce overtake his business at night ; while 
laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes 
him," as we read in Poor Richard ; who adds, " drive 
thy business ! let not that drive thee !" and — 

** Early to bed and early to rise 
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." 

So what signifies wishing and hoping for better 
times ? We may make these times better if we bestir 
ourselves. " Industry need not wish," as Poor Richard 
says, and " he that lives on hope will die fasting." 
^' There are no gains without pains ; then help, hands I 
for I have no lands ;" or, if I have, they, are smartly 
taxed. And as Poor Richard likewise observes, " he 
that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a 
calling hath an oflSce of profit and honor ;" but then 



32a AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

the trade must be worked at and the calling well fol« 
lowed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable 
us to pay our taxes. If we are industrious we shall 
never starve ; for^ as Poor Eichard says, " at the work- 
ing-man's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter." 
Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for " industry 
pays debts, while despair increaseth them." 

What though you have found no treasure, nor has 
any rich relation left you a legacy, " diligence is the 
mother of good luck," as Poor Richard says, and " God 
gives all things to industry." 

* * Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, 
And you shall have corn to sell and to keep," 

says Poor Dick. Work while it is called to-day, for 
you know not how much you may be hindered to- 
morrow; which makes Poor Richard say, "one to- 
day is worth two to-morrows;" and further, "have 
you somewhat to do to-morrow ? Do it to-day !" 

If you were a servant would you not be ashamed 
that a good master should catch you idle ? Are you, 
then, your own master ? " Be ashamed to catch your- 
self idle," as Poor Dick says. When there is so 
much to be done for 3^ourself, your family, your 
country, and your gracious king, be up by peep of 
day ! " Let not the sun look down and say, ' Inglorious 
here he lies !' " Handle your tools without mittens ! 
remember that " the cat in gloves catches no mice !" 
as Poor Richard says. 

'Tis true there is much to be done, and perhaps you 
are weak-handed ; but stick to it steadily and you will 
see great efleotss ; for " qoftstant dropping wears away 



BENJAMIN PRANELIN. tgg 

stones ;" and " by diligence and patience the mouse ate 
in two the cable ;" and "little strokes fell great oaks ;" 
as Poor Richard says in his almanac, the year I can- 
not jast now remember. 
Methinks I hear some of you say, " Must a man 
fford himself no leisure ?" I will tell thee, my friend, 
vhat Poor Eichard says, "employ thy time well if 
thou meanest to gain leisure ;" and "since thou art not 
sure of a minute, throw not away an hour !" Leisure 
is time for doing something useful ; this leisure the 
diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; so 
that, as Poor Eichard says, "a life of leisure and a 
life of laziness are two things." Do vou imau^ine that 
sloth will afford you more comfort than labor? No! 
for, as Poor Eichard says, "trouble springs from idle- 
ness and grievous toil from needless ease." " Many, 
without labor, would live by their wits only, but 
thej^'U break for want of stock" [means]; whereas 
industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect. 
"Fly pleasures and they'll follow you;" "the diligent 
spinner has a large shift ;" and 

" Now I have a sheep and a cow, 
Everybody bids me good-morrow." 

All which is well said by Poor Eichard. . But with 
our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and 
careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own 
eyes and not trust too much to others ; for, as Poor 
Eichard says — 

** I never saw an oft-removed tree 
Nor yet an oft-removed family 
That throve so well as those that settled be." 

And again, " three removes are as bad as a fire ;" 



'234 ^ UTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

and again, "keep thy shop and thy shop will keep 
thee;" and again, "if you would have your business 
done, go ; if not, send." And again — 

'* He that by the plow would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive." 

And again, " the eye of the master will do more 
work than both his hands ;" and again, " want of care 
does us more damage than want of knowledge ;" and 
again, " not to oversee workmen is to leave them your 
purse open." 

Trusting too much to others' care is the ruin of 
many ; for, as the almanac says. " in the affairs of this 
w^orld men are saved, not by faith, but by the want of 
it ;" but a man's own care is profitable ; for, saith 
Poor Dick, " learning is to the studious and riches to 
the careful;" as well as "power to the bold" and 
" heaven to the virtuous." And further, " if you would 
have a faithful servant and one that you like, serve 
yourself." 

And again, he adviseth to circumspection and care, 
even in the smallest matters ; because sometimes " a 
little neglect may breed great mischief ;" adding, 
" for want of a nail the shoe was lost ; for want of a 
shoe the horse was lost ; and for want of a horse the 
rider was lost ;" being overtaken and slain by the 
enemy ; all for want of a little care about a horseshoe 
nail ! 

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to 
one's own business ; but to these we must add frugality 
if we would make our industry more certainly success- 
ful. " A man mav," if he knows not how to save as 
he gets, " keep, his nose all his life to the grindstone 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 225 

and die not worth a groat at last." " A fat kitchen 
makes a lean will," as Poor Kichard says ; and 

** Many estates are spent in the getting, 
Since women for tea * forsook spinning and knitting, 
And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting. " 

If you would be wealthy, says he in another almanac, 
" think of saving as well as of getting. The Indies 
have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are 
greater than her incomes." 

Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will 
not have so much cause to complain of hard times, 
heavy taxes, and chargeable families ; for, as poor 
Dick says— 

'* Women and wine, game and deceit, 
Make the wealth small and the wants great. " 

And further, '^ what maintains one vice would bring 
up two children." You may think, perhaps, that a 
little tea or a little punch now and then, a diet a little 
more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little more 
entertainment now and then, can be no great matter ; 
but remember what Poor Richard says, "many a 
little makes a mickle ;" and further, " beware of little 
expenses ; a small leak will sink a great ship ;" and 



agam- 



*' Who dainties love shall beggars prove ;" 



and moreover, " fools make feasts and wise men eat 
them." 

. Here are you all got together at this vendue of 
fineries and knick-knacks. You call them goods ; but 
if you do not take care they will prove evils to some 

* Tea at this time was expensive and regarded a luxury. 



326 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

of you. Tou expect they will be sold cheap, and per- 
haps they may for less than they cost; but if you 
have no occasion for them they must be dear to you. 
Remember what Poor Eichard says : " Buy what thou 
hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy 
necessaries." And again, ^'at a great pennyworth 
pause awhile." He means that perhaps the cheapness 
is apparent only and not real ; or the bargain by strait- 
ening thee in thy business may do thee more harm 
than good. For in another place he says, " many 
have been ruined by buying good pennyworths." 

Again, Poor Richard says, "'tis foolish to lay out 
money in a purchase of repentance ;" and yet this 
folly is practiced every day at vendues for want of 
minding the almanac. 

"Wise men," as Poor Eichard says, "learn by 
others' harms ; fools scarcely by their own ;" but 
Felix quern faciunt aliena pericula cautum,^ Many a 
one, for the sake of finery on the back, has gone with 
a hungry belly and half-starved their families. " Silks 
and satins, scarlets and velvets," as Poor Eichard 
says, " put out the kitchen fire." These are not the 
necessaries of life ; they can scarcely be called the con- 
veniences ; and yet, only because they look pretty, 
how many want to have them I The artificial wants 
of mankind thus become more numerous than the 
natural ; and as Poor Dick says, " for one poor person 
there are a hundred indigent." 

By these and other extravagances the genteel are 
reduced to poverty and forced to borrow of those 

* He's a lucky fellow who is made prudent by other men'« 
perils. 



BENJAMm FBANKLm, Wt 

whom they formerly despised, but who, throngh in- 
dustry and frugality, have maintained their standing ; 
in which case it appears plainly fhat ''a plowman on 
his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees," as 
Poor Eichard says. Perhaps they have had a small 
estate left them, which they knew not the getting of ; 
they think, ^"tis day and will never be night;" that 
^' a little to be spent out of so much is not worth 
minding " (a child and a fool, as Poor Richard says, 
imagine twenty shillings and twenty years can never 
be spent) ; but "always taking out of the meal-tub, 
and never putting in, soon comes to the bottom." 
Then, as Poor Dick says, " when the well's dry they 
know the worth of water." But this they might have 
known before if they had taken his advice. " If j^ou 
would know the value of money, go and try to bor- 
row some;" for "he that goes a-borrowing goes a- 
Borrowing," and indeed so does he that lends to such 
people, when he goes to get it in again. 
Poor Dick further advises and says : 

*' Fond pride of dress is, sure, a very curse; 
Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse." 

And again, "' pride is as loud a beggar as want and a 
great deal more saucy." When you have bought one 
fine thing you must buy ten more, that your appear- 
ance may be all of a piece ; but Poor Dick says, " 'tis 
easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all 
that follow it." And 'tis as truly folly for the poor to 
ape the rich as for the frog to swell in order to equal 
the ox. - 

"Great estates may venture more, 
But little boats should keep near ghore," 



228 AtlTOBIOQRAPHT OF 

'Tis, however, a folly. soon punished ; for " pride 
that dines on vanity sups on contempt," as Poor 
Richard says. And in another place, " pride break- 
fasted with plenty, dined with poyerty, and supped 
with infamy." 

And after all, of what use is this pride of appear- 
ance, for which so much is risked, so much is suffered ? 
It cannot promote health or ease pain ; it makes no 
increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it 
hastens misfortune. 

" What is a butterfly ? At best 
He's but a caterpillar drest, 
The gaudy fop's his picture just," 

as Poor Richard says. 

But what madness must it be to run into debt for 
these superfluities ! We are offered by the terms of 
this vendue six months' credit ; and that, perhaps, has 
induced some of us to attend it, because we cannot 
spare the ready money and hope now to be fine with- 
out it. But ah ! think what you do when you run in 
debt: you give to another power over your liberty. 
If you cannot pay at the time you will be ashamed to 
see your creditor ; you will be in fear when you speak 
to him ; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, 
and by degrees come to lose your veracity and sink 
into base, downright lying ; for, as Poor Richard says, 
" the second vice is lying, the first is running into 
debt ;" and again, to the same purpose, " lying rides 
upon debt's back ;" whereas a free-born Englishman 
ought not to be ashamed or afraid to see or speak to 
any man living. But poverty often deprives a man of 
all spirit and virtue. " 'Tis hard for an empty bag to 
stand upright!" as Poor Richard truly says. What 



Benjamin franklin. 229 

would you think of that prince or the government 
who should issue an edict forbidding you to dress like 
a gentleman or gentlewoman, on pain of imprisonment 
or servitude? Would you not say that you are free, 
have a right to dress as you please, and that such an 
edict would be a breach of your privileges and such a 
government^ tyrannical ? And yet you are about to 
put yourself under such tyranny when you run in 
debt for such dress ! Tour creditor has authority, at 
his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty by confin- 
ing you in jail for life or to sell you for a servant if you 
should not be able to pay him. When you have got 
your bargain you may, perhaps, think little of pay- 
ment ; but " creditors," Poor Richard tells us, "have 
better memories than debtors ;" and in another place 
says, " creditors are a superstitious set, great observ- 
ers of set days and times." The day comes round 
before you are aware, and the demand is made before 
you are prepared to satisfy it ; or, if you bear your debt 
in mind, the term which at first seemed so long will, 
as it lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem 
to have added wings to his heels as well as his 
shoulders. " Those have a short Lent," saith Poor 
Richard, "who owe money to be paid at Easter." 
Then since, as he says, " the borrower is a slave to the 
lender and the debtor to the creditor," disdain the 
chain, preserve your freedom, and maintain your 
independency. Be industrious and free; be frugal 
and free. At present, perhaps, you may think your- 
self in thriving circumstances, and that you can bear 
a little extravagance without injury ; but — 

*^ For age and want, save while you may; 
No morning sun lasts a whole day." 



JJ80 AnfOBIOGRAPBT OP 

As Poor Richard says, gain may be temporary and 
uncertain; but ever while you live expense is constant 
and certain ; and " His easier to build two chimneys 
than to keep one in fuel," as Poor Eichard says ; so, 
*' rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt." 

*' Get what you can, and what you get hold; 
'Tis the stone that will turn all your load into gold," * 

as Poor Eichard says ; and w^hen yoxx have got the 
philosopher's stone, sure, you \vill no longer complain 
of bad times or the difficulty of paying taxes. 

This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; 
but, after all, do not depend too much upon your own 
industry and frugality and prudence, though excellent 
things, for they may all be blasted without the blessing 
of Heaven ; and therefore ask that blessing humbly, 
and be not uncharitable to those that at present seem 
to want it, but comfort and help them. Eemember Job 
suffered and was afterward prosperous. 

And now, to conclude, "experience keeps a dear 
school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in 
that ;" for it is true, " we may give advice, but we 
cannot give conduct," as Poor Eichard says. How- 
ever, remember this : " they that won't be counseled 
can't be helped," as Poor Eichard says ; and further, 
that " if you will not hear reason she'll surely rap your 
knuckles." 

Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The 
people heard it and approved the doctrine, and im- 
mediately practiced the contrary, just as if it had been 

♦The philosopher's stone, so called, a mineral having the power 
of turning base metals into gold. 



BMNJAMIN FRANKLIK 831 

a common sermon. For the vendue opened and they 
began to buy extravagantly, notwithstanding all his 
cautions and their own fear of taxes. I found the good 
man had thoroughly studied my almanacs and digested 
all I had dropped on those topics during the course of 
twenty-five years. The frequent mention he made of 
me must have tired any one else ; but my vanity was 
wonderfully delighted with it, though I was conscious 
that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own which 
he ascribed to me, but rather ihe gleanings that I had 
made of the sense of all ages and nations. However, 
I resolved to be the better for the echo of it, and 
though I had at first determined to buy stuff for a new 
ooat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little 
longer. Eeader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit 
will be as great as mine. I am, as ever, thine to serve 
thee, 

ElCHARD SaUNDEES. 

J'% 7th, 1757- 



233 A UTOBIOGBAPHY OF 



PLAN FOE SAYING ONE HUNDEED THOU^ 
SAND POUNDS. 

From "Poor Eichard\s Almanac," 1756. 

As I spent some weeks last winter in visiting my 
old acquaintance in the Jerseys, great complaints I 
heard for want of money, and that leave to make 
more paper bills could not be obtained. Friends and 
countrymen, my advice on this head shall cost you 
nothing ; and if you will not be angry with me for 
giving it, I promise you not to be offended if you do 
not take it. 

You spend yearly at least two hundred thousand 
pounds, it is said, in European, East Indian, and West 
Indian commodities. Suppose one-half of this expense 
to be in things absolutely necessary^ the other half 
may be called superfluities, or, at best, conveniences, 
which, however, you might live without for one little 
year and not suffer exceedingly. Now, to save this 
half observe these few directions : 

1. When you incline to have new clothes, look first 
well over the old ones and see if you cannot shift with 
them another year, either by scouring, mending, or 
even patching if necessary. Eemember, a patch on 
your coat and money in your pocket is better and more 
creditable than a writ on your back and no money to 
take it off. 

2. When you are inclined to buy china ware, chintzes. 



BENJAMIN FBANKLIN. 233 

India silks, or any other of their flimsy, slight manu- 
factures, I would not be so bad with you as to insist 
on your absolutely resolving agaiiist it ; all I advise is 
to put it off (as you do your repentance) till another 
year, and this, in some respects, may prevent an 
occasion of repentance. 

3. If you are now a drinker of punch, wine, or tea 
twice a day ,~ for the ensuing year drink them but once 
a day. If you now drink them but once a day, do it 
but every other day. If you do it now but once a 
week, reduce the practice to once a fortnight. And 
if you do not exceed in quantity as you lessen the 
times, half your expense in these articles will be saved. 

4. When you incline to drink rum, fill the glass half 
with water. 

Thus at the year's end there will be a hundred 
thousand pounds more money in your country. 

If paper money in ever so great a quantity could be 
made, no man could get any of it without giving 
something for it. But all he saves in this way will be 
his own for nothing and his country actually so much 
richer. Then the merchants' old and doubtful debts 
may be honestly paid off, and trading becomes surer 
thereafter, if not so extensive. 



^34 AUTOBIOQRAPMY OF 



NECESSAEY HINTS TO THOSE THAx^ 
WOULD BE KICH. 

Wkitten in the Yeab 1736. 

The use of money is all the advantage there is ia 
having money. 

For six pounds a year you may have the use of one 
hundred pounds, provided you are a man of known 
prudence and honesty. 

He that spends a groat a day idly spends idly above 
six pounds a year, which is the price for the use of 
one hundred pounds. 

He that wastes idly a groat's worth of his time per 
day, one day with another, wastes the privilege of 
using one hundred pounds each day. 

He that idly loses five shillings' worth of time loses 
five shillings, and might as prudently throw five shil- 
lings into the sea. 

He that loses five shillings not only loses that sum, 
but all the advantage that might be made by turning 
it in dealing, which by the time that a young man 
becomes old will amount to a considerable sum of 
money. 

Again : he that sells upon credit asks a price for 
what he sells equivalent to the principal and interest 
of his money for the time he is to be kept out of it; 
therefore he that buj^s upon credit pays interest 
iox wbat he bu^s^and he that pays ready money 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 235 

might let that mone^y out to use ; so that he that pos- 
sesses anything he has bought pays interest for the 
use of it. 

Yet in buying goods it is best to pay ready money, 
because he that sells upon credit expects to lose five 
per cent, by bad debts ; therefore he charges on all 
he sells upon- credit an advance that shall make up 
that deficiency. 

Those who pay for what they buy upon credit pay 
their share of this advance. 

He that pays ready money escapes, or may escape, 
that charge. 

** A penny saved is two pence clear; 
A pin a day's a groat a year.'* 



236 AVT0BI0GBAPE7 OF 



ADVICE TO A YOUNG TEADESMAN. 

Written in the Year 174:8. 

To MY Friend, A. B. : As you have desired it oi 
me, I write the following hints, which have been of 
service to me, and may, if observed, be so bo you. 

Remember that time is money. He that can earn 
ten shillings a day by his labor and goes abroad or 
sits idle one-half of that day, though he spends but 
sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to 
reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or 
rather thrown away, five shillings besides. 

Remember that credit is money. If a man lets his 
money lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me the 
interest, or so much as I can make of it during that 
time. This amounts to a considerable sum where a 
man has good and large credit and makes good use 
of it. 

Remember that money is of the prolific, generatmg 
nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring 
can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is 
SIX ; turned again it is seven and threepence, and so on 
till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is 
of it the more it produces every turning, so that the 
profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a 
breeding sow destroys all her offspring to the thou- 
sandth generation. He that murders a crown destroys 
all that might have produced even scores of pounds. 



BENJAMIN FBANKLm, 237 

Eemember that six pounds a year is but a groat a 
day. For this little sum (which may be daily wasted 
either in time or expense unperceived) a man of credit 
may, on his own security, have the constant possession 
and use of a hundred pounds. So much in stock 
briskly turned by an industrious man produces great 
advantage. 

Eemember this saying, " The good paymaster is lord 
of another man's purse." He that is known to pay 
punctually and exactly to the time he promises may at 
any time and on any occasion raise all the money his 
friends can spare. This is sometimes of great use. 
After industry and frugality, nothing contributes more 
to the raising of a young man in the world than punc- 
tuality and justice in all his dealings ; therefore never 
keep borrowed money an hour beyond the time you 
promised, lest a disappointment shut up your friend's 
purse forever. 

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit 
are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at 
five in the morning or nine at night heard by a 
creditor makes him easy six months longer, but if he 
sees you at a billiard-table or hears your voice at a 
tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his 
money the next day ; demands it, before he can 
receive it, in a lump. 

It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you 
owe ; it makes you appear a careful as well as an 
honest man, and that still increases your credit. 

Beware of thinking all your own that you possess 
and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many 
people who have credit fall into. To prevent this, 
keep an exact account for some time, both of your ex- 



338 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

penses and your income. If you take the pains at 

first to mention particulars, it will have this good 

effect: you will discover how wonderfully small, 

trifling expenses mount up to large sums, and will 

discern what might have been and may for the future 

be saved without occasioning any great inconvenience. 

^ In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as 

/ plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly oi 

/ two words, industry and frugality ; that is, wasu 

I neither time nor money, but make the best use o^ 

\ both. Without industry and frugality nothing will 

do, and with them everything. He that gets all he 

can honestly and saves all he gets (necessary expenses 

excepted) will certainly become rich, if that Being 

who governs the world, to whom all should look for a 

blessing on their honest endeavors, doth not, in his 

wise providence, otherwise determine. 

An Old TradesmaNo 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 239 



DIGGmG FOR HIDDEN TREASURE. 

From "The Busy-Bodt," a Series of Essays 
BY Franklin. 

One of the greatest pleasures an author can have 
is certainly the hearing his works applauded. The 
hiding from the world our names while we publish 
our thoughts is so absolutely necessary to this self- 
gratification that I hope my well-wishers will congrat- 
ulate me on my escape from the many diligent but 
fruitless inquiries that have of late been made after 
me. Every man will own that an author, as such, 
ought to be tried by the merit of his productions 
only ; but pride, party, and prejudice at this time run 
so very high that experience shows we form our 
notions of a piece by the character of the author. Nay, 
there are some very humble politicians in and about 
this city who will ask on which side the writer is be- 
fore they presume to give their opinion of the thing 
written. This ungenerous way of proceeding I was 
well aware of before I published my first speculation, 
and therefore concealed ray name. And I appeal to 
the more generous part of the world if I have, since 
I appeared in the character of the Busy-B.ody, given 
an instance of my siding with any party more than 
another in the unhappy divisions of my country ; and 
I have, above all, this satisfaction in myself, that 
neither aSiection, aversion, nor interest has biased me 



240 AJTTOBIOGRAPHT 01<\ 

to use any partiality toward any man or set of men ; 
but whatsover I find nonsensical, ridiculous, or im- 
morally dishonest I have and shall continue openly 
to attack, with the freedom of an honest man and 
a lover of my country. 

I profess I can hardly contain myself, or preserve 
the gravity and dignity that should attend the cen- 
sorial office, when I hear the off-hand and unaccount- 
able expositions that are put upon some of my works 
through the malicious ignorance of some and the vain 
pride of more than ordinary penetration in others ; one 
instance of which many of my readers are acquainted 
with. A certain gentleman has taken a great deal of 
pains to write a key to the letter in my No. lY. 
[upon annoyances from children], wherein he has in- 
geniously converted a gentle satire upon tedious and 
impertinent visitants into a libel on some of the gov- 
ernment. This I mention only as a specimen of the 
taste of the gentleman I am, forsooth, bound to please 
in my speculations ; not that I suppose my impartial- 
ity will ever be called in question on that account. 
Injustices of this nature I could complain of in many 
instances ; but I am at present diverted by the recep- 
tion of a letter which, though it regards me only in 
my private capacity as an adept, yet I venture to 
publish it for the entertainment of my readers : 

" To Censor Morum, Esq., Busy-Body-General of the 

Province of Pennsylvania and the Counties of 

Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex upon Delaware. 

" Honorable Sir : I judge by your lubcubrations 

that you are not only a lover of truth and equity, but 

a man of parts and learning and a master of science ^ 




1 

I 






o 

d 

Q4 



o 

I 

bo 

a 

a 
bp 

»— I 

a 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 241 

as such I honor you. Enow then, most profound- sir, 
that I have from my youth up been a very indefatiga- 
ble student in and admirer of- that divine science 
astrology. I have read over Scot, Mbertus Magnus, 
and Cornelius Agrippa about three hundred times, and 
was in hopes, by my knowledge and industry, to gain 
enough to have recompensed me for my money ex- 
pended and time lost in the pursuit of this learning. 
You cannot be ignorant, sir (for your intimate, second- 
sighted correspondent knows all things), that there are 
large sums of money hidden underground in divers 
places about this town and in many parts of the 
country ; but, alas ! sir, notwithstanding I have used 
all the means laid down in the immortal authors before 
inentioned, and when thej^ failed the ingenious Mr. 
P-d-1, with his mercurial wand and magnet, I have 
still failed in my purpose. This, therefore, I send, to 
propose and desire an acquaintance with you ; and I 
do not doubt, notwithstanding my repeated ill-fortune, 
but we may be exceedingly serviceable to each other 
in our discoveries, and that if we use our united en- 
deavors the time will come when the Busy-Body, hi^ 
second sighted correspondent, and youv very hum bio 
servant will be three of the richest men in the prov- 
ince. And then, sir, what may we not do ? A word 
to the wise is sufficient. I conclude, with all demon- 
strable respect, yours and Urania's votary, 

" TiTAi^ Pleiades." 

In the evening, after I bad received this letter, I 
made a visit to my second sighted friend and com- 
municated to him the proposal. When he had read it 
he assured me that, to his certain knowledge, there is 



242 A UTOmOGMAPMY OP 

not at this time so much as one ounce of silver or gold 
hid underground in any part of this province ; for that 
the late and present scarcity of money had obliged 
those who were living, and knew where they had 
formerly hid any, to take it up and use it in their own 
necessary affairs ; and as to all the rest, which was 
buried by pirates and others in old times who were 
never likely to come for it, he himself had dug it all 
up and applied it to charitable uses ; and this he de- 
sired me to publish for the general good. For, as he 
acquainted me, there are among us great numbers of 
honest artificers and laboring people, w^ho, fed with a 
vain hope of growing suddenly rich, neglect their 
business, almost to the ruining of themselves and 
families, and voluntarily endure abundance of fatigue 
in a fruitless search after imaginary hidden treasure. 
They wander through the woods and bushes by day 
to discover the marks and signs ; at midnight they re- 
pair to the hopeful spots with spades and pickaxes ; 
full of expectation, they labor violently, trembling at 
the same time in every joint, through fear of certain 
malicious demons who are said to haunt and guard 
such places. At length a mighty hole is dug and per- 
haps several cart-loads of earth thrown out ; but, alas ! 
no keg or iron pot is found. No seaman's chest 
crammed with Spanish pistoles or weighty pieces of 
eight! They conclude that through some mistake in 
the procedure, some rash word spoken, or some rule of 
art neglected, the guardian spirit had power to sink it 
deeper into the earth and convey it out of their reach. 
Yet when a man is once infatuated he is so far from 
being discouraged b}^ ill success that he is rather ani- 
paated to double his industry, and will try again and 



BENJAMIN PRANKLIN. 24S 

again in a hundred different places, in hopes at last of 
meeting with some lucky hit that shall at once suf- 
ficiently reward him for all his expenses of time and 
labor. 

This odd humor of digging for money, through a 
belief that much has been hid by pirates formerly fre- 
quenting the river, has for several years been mighty 
prevalent among us ; insomuch that you can hardly 
walk half a mile out of the town on any side without 
observing several pits dag with that design, and per- 
haps some lately opened. Men, otherwise of very 
good sense, have been drawn into this practice through 
an overweenino^ desire of sudden wealth and an easv 
credulity of what they so earnestly wished might be 
true ; while the rational and most certain methods of 
acquiring riches by industry and frugality are neg- 
lected or forgotten. There seems to be some peculiar 
charm in the conceit of finding money ; and if the 
sands of Schuylkill were so much mixed with small 
grains of gold that a man might in a day's time, with 
care and application, get together to the value of 
half a crown, I make no question but we should find 
several people employed there that can with ease earn 
five shillings a day at their proper trades. 

Many are the idle stories told of the private success 
of some people, by which others are encouraged to 
proceed; and the astrologers, with whom the country 
swarms at this time, are either in the belief of these 
things themselves or find their advantage in persuad- 
ing others to believe them ; for they are. often con- 
sulted about the critical times for digging, the methods 
of laying the spirit, and the like whimseys, which 
renders them very necessary to and very much caressed 
by the poor, deluded money-hunters* 



U4: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

There is certainly something very bewitching in the 
pursuit after mines of gold and silver and other valu- 
able metals, and many have been ruined by it. A sea- 
captain of my acquaintance used to blame the English 
for envying Spain their mines of silver, and too much 
despising or overlooking the advantages of their own 
industry and manufactures. " For my part," says he, 
" I esteem the Banks of ISTewfoundland to be a more 
valua,ble possession than the mountains of Potosi ; and 
when I have been there on the fishing account have 
looked upon every cod pulled up into the vessel as a 
certain quantity of silver ore, which only required 
carrying to the next Spanish port to be coined into 
pieces of eight ; not to mention the national profit of 
fitting out and employing such a number of ships and 
seamen." 

Let honest Peter Buckram, who has long without 
success been a searcher after hidden money, reflect on 
this and be reclaimed from that unaccountable folly. 
Let him consider that every stitch he takes when he is 
on his shopboard is picking up part of a grain of gold 
that will in a few days' time amount to a pistole ; and 
let Faber think the same of every nail he drives or 
every stroke with his plane. Such thoughts may make 
them industrious, and, in consequence, in time they 
may be wealthy. But how absurd it is to neglect a 
certain profit for such a ridiculous whimsey ; to spend 
whole days at the George in company with an idle 
pretender to astrology, contriving schemes to discover 
what was never hidden, and forgetful how carelessly 
business is managed at home in their absence ; to 
leave their wives and a warm bed at midnight (no 
matter if it rain, hail, snow, or blow a hurricane, pro- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 245 

vided that be the critical hour) and fatigue themselves 
with the violent exercise of digging for what they 
shall never find, and perhaps getting a cold that may 
cost their liv^eSjOr at least disordering themselves so as 
to be fit for no business besides for some days after. 
Surely this is nothing less than the most egregious 
folly and madness 

I shall conclude with the words of my discreet 
friend Agricola, of Chester County, when he gave his 
son a good plantation. " My son," said he, " I give 
thee now a valuable parcel of land ; I assure thee I 
have found a considerable quantity of gold by digging 
there ; thee mayest do the same; but thee must care- 
fully observe this, never to dig more than plow- 
deep." 



M6 AUT0BI0&BAPH7 OP 



REMAEKS CONCERNmG THE SAVAGES 
OF NORTH AMERICA. 

Savages we call them, because their manners differ 
from ours, which we think the perfection of civility ; 
they think the same of theirs. 

Perhaps if we could examine the manners of differ- 
ent nations with impartiality we should find no people 
so rude as to be without any rules of politeness, or 
none so polite as not to have some remains of rude- 
ness. 

The Indian men, when young, are hunters and war- 
riors ; when old, counselors ; for all their government 
is by the counsel or advice of the sages. There is no 
force, there are no prisons, no officers to com-pel obe- 
dience or inflict punishment. Hence they generally 
study oratory, the best speaker having the most influ- 
ence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the 
food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve 
and hand down to posterity the memory of public 
transactions. These emplo3^ments of men and women 
are accounted natural and honorable. Having few 
artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for 
improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner 
of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish and 
base; and the learning on which we vahie ourselves 
they regard as frivolous and useless. An instance of 
this occurred at the treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsyl- 



BENJAMm FRANELIK. 247 

vania, anno 1744, between the government of Virginia 
and the Six Nations.^ After the principal business 
was settled, the commissioners from Virginia ac- 
quainted the Indians b}^ a speech that there was at 
Williamsburg a college, with a fund for educating 
Indian youth ; and that if the chiefs of the Six Na- 
tions would send down half a dozen of their sons to 
that college, the government would take care that 
they should be well provided for and instructed in all 
the learning of the white people. It is one of the In- 
dian rules of politeness not to answer a public propo- 
sition the same day that it is made ; they think it 
would be treating it as a light matter, and that they 
show it respect by taking time to consider it as of a 
matter important. They therefore deferred their an- 
swer till the day following, when their speaker began 
by expressing their deep sense of the kindness of the 
Virginia government in making them that offer; ''for 
we know," says he, " that 3^ou highly esteem the kind 
of learning taught in those colleges, and that the 
maintenance of our young men while with you would 
be very expensive to you. We are convinced, there- 
fore, that you mean to do us good by your proposal, 
and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, 
must know that different nations have different con- 
ceptions of things ; and you will therefore not take it 
amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happen 
not to be the same with yours. We have had some 
experience of it. Several of our young people were 
formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern 

* The Six Nations were six tribes of Indians formed in » 
league, also known as the Iroquois, 



248 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

provinces ; they were instructed in all your sciences ; 
but when they came back to us they were bad run- 
ners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, 
unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither 
how to build a cabin, take a deer, nor kill an enemy, 
spoke our language imperfectly ; were therefore 
neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counselors — they 
were therefore totally good for nothing. We are, 
however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, 
though we decline accepting it ; and to show our 
grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will 
send us a dozen of their sons we will take great care 
of their education, instruct them in all we know, and 
make men of them." 

Having frequent occasions to hold councils, they 
have acquired great order and decency in conducting 
them. The old men sit in the foremost ranks, the 
warriors in the next, and the women and children in 
the hindmost. The business of the women is to take 
exact notice of what passes, imprint it in their memo- 
ries (for they have no writing), and communicate it to 
their children. They are the records of the council, 
and they preserve the tradition of the stipulations in 
treaties a hundred years back ; which, when we com- 
pare with our writings, we always find exact. He 
that would speak rises. The rest observe a profound 
silence. When he has finished and sits down, they 
leave him five or six minutes to recollect that if he 
has omitted anything he intended to say or has 
anything to add he may rise again and deliver it. To 
interrupt another, even in common conversation, is 
reckoned highly indecent; How different this is 
from the conduct of a polite British House of Com- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIK 249 

mons, where scarce a day passes without some con- 
fusion, that makes the Speaker hoarse calling to 
order; and how diflFerent from the mode of conver- 
sation in many polite companies of Europe, where, if 
you do not deliver your sentence with great rapidity, 
you are cut off in the middle of it by the impatient 
loquacity of -those you converse with and never suffered 
to finish it ! 

The politeness of these savages in conversation 
is indeed carried to excess, since it does not per- 
mit them to contradict or deny the truth of what 
is asserted in their presence. By this means they 
indeed avoid disputes; but then it becomes difficult 
•to know their minds or what impression you make 
upon them. The missionaries who have attempted 
to convert them to Christianit}^ all complain of 
this as one of the great difficulties of their mission. 
The Indians hear with patience the truths of the 
Gospel explained to them and give their usual 
tokens of assent and approbation. You would think 
they were convinced. No such matter. It is mere 
civility. 

A Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs 
of the Susquehanna Indians made a sermon to them, 
acquainting them with the principal historical facts 
on which our religion is founded — such as the fall of 
our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of 
Christ to repair the mischief, his miracles and suffer- 
ing, etc. When he had finished an Indian orator 
stood up to thank him. "What you have told us," 
says he, " is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat 
apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We 
are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far 



250 AXTTOBIOGEAPHT OF 

to tell us those things which you have heard from 
your mothers, la return,! will tell you some of those 
w^e have heard from ours. ' In the beginning, our 
fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on, and 
if their hunting was unsuccessful they were starving. 
Two of our young hunters having killed a deer made 
a fire in the woods to boil some parts of it. When 
thev were about to satisf v their huno^er, thev beheld a 
beautiful young woman descend from the clouds anci 
seat herself on that hill which you see yonder among 
the Blue Mountains. They said to each other, ^'It is 
a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison 
and wishes to eat of it ; let us ofTer some to her." 
They presented her with the tongue; she was pleased 
with the taste of it and said : " Your kindness shall be 
rewarded ; come to this place after thirteen moons, and 
you will find something that will be of great benefit in 
nourishing you and your children to the latest gener- 
ations." Thej^ did so, and to their surprise found 
plants they had never seen before, but which from 
that ancient time have been constantly cultivated 
among us to our great advantage. Where her right 
hand had touched the ground they found maize; 
where her left had touched it they found kidney - 
beans,'" The good missionary, disgusted with this 
idle tale, said : " What I delivered to vou were sacred 
truths ; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction and 
falsehood." The Indian, oS'ended, replied: "My 
brother, it seems your friends have not done you 
justice in your education; they have not well in- 
structed you in the rules of common civility. You 
saw that we, who understand and practice those rules, 
believed all yomr stories ; why d© you refuse t# believe 
oursT 



BENJAMIN FRANKLm. 251 

When any of them come into our towns our people 
are apt to crowd them, gaze upon them, and incom- 
mode them where they desire to be private ; this they 
esteem great rudeness and the effect of the want of 
instruction in the rules of civility and good manners. 
"We have," say they, " as much curiosity as you, and 
when you come into our towns we wish for opportuni- 
ties of looking at you ; but for this purpose we hide 
ourselves behind bushes where you are to pass and 
never intrude ourselves into your company." 

Their manner of entering one another's village has 
likewise its rules. It is reckoned uncivil in traveling 
strangers to enter a village abruptly without giving 
notice of their approach. Therefore as soon as they 
arrive within hearing they stop and halloo, remaining 
there until invited to enter. Two old men usually 
come out to them and lead them in. There is in every 
village a vacant dwelling, called the strangers' house. 
Here they are placed, while the old men go round 
from hut to hut acquainting the inhabitants that 
strangers are arrived, who are probably hungry and 
weary; and every one sends them what he can spare 
of victuals and skins to repose on. When the stran- 
gers are refreshed pipes and; tobacco are brought; 
and then, but not before, conversation begins, with in- 
quiries who they are, whither bound, what news, etc., 
and it usually ends with offers of service, if the 
strangers have occasion for guides, or any necessaries 
for continuing their journey ; and nothing is exacted 
for the entertainment. 

The same hospitality, esteemed among them as a 
principal virtue, is practiced by private persons, of 
which Conrad Weiser, our interpreter, gave me the 



262 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

following instance. He had been naturalized among 
the Six Nations and spoke well the Mohawk language. 
In going through the Indian countrj^, to carry a mes- 
sage from our governor to the council at Onondaga, 
he called at the habitation of Canassetego, an old 
acquaintance, who embraced him, spread furs for him 
to sit on, and placed before him some boiled beans and 
venison and mixed some rum and water for his drink. 
When he was well refreshed and had lit his pipe, 
Canassetego began to converse with him ; asked him 
how he had fared the many years since they had seen 
each other, whence he then came, what occasioned the 
journey, etc. Conrad answered all his questions, and 
when the discourse began to flag the Indian, to con- 
tinue it, said : " Conrad, you have lived long among 
the white people and know something of their customs. 
I have been sometimes at Alban}^, and have observed 
that once in seven days they shut up their shops and 
assemble all in the great house. Tell me what it is for. 
What do they do there?" "They meet there," says 
Conrad, "to hear and learn good things." " I do not 
doubt," says the Indian, " that they tell you so — they 
have told me the same; but I doubt the truth of what 
they say, and I will tell you my reasons. I w^ent lately 
to Albany to sell my skins and buy blankets, knives, 
powder, rum, etc. You know I used generally to deal 
with Hans Hanson, but I was a little inclined this time 
to try some other merchants. However, I called first 
upon Hans and asked him what he would give for 
beaver. He said he could not give any more than four 
shillings a pound; ^ but,' says he, 'I cannot talk on 
business now : this is the day when we meet together 
tfO learn good things, and I am going to meeting.' So 



I 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 253 

I thought to myself, ' Since I cannot do any business 
to-day, 1 may as well go to the meeting too,' and I 
went with him. There stood up a man in black and 
began to talk to the people very angrily. I did not 
understand what he said ; but perceiving that he looked 
much at me and at Hanson, I imagined he was angry 
at seeing me there ; so I went out, sat down near the 
house, struck fire and lit my pipe, waiting till the 
meeting should break up. I thought, too, that the 
man had mentioned something of beaver, and I sus- 
pected it might be the subject of their meeting. So 
when they came out I accosted my merchant. ' Well, 
Hans,' says I, ' I hope you have agreed to give more 
than four shillings a pound.' ' No,' says he ; ' I cannot 
give so much ; I cannot give more than three shillings 
and sixpence.' I then spoke to several dealers, but 
they all sang the same song — three and sixpence — 
three and sixpence. This made it clear to me that my 
suspicion was right ; and that whatever they pretended 
of meeting to learn good things, the real purpose was 
to consult how to cheat Indians in the price of beaver. 
Consider but a little, Conrad, and you must be of my 
opinion. If they met so often to learn good things, 
they would certainly have learned some before this 
time. But they are still ignorant. You know our 
practice. If a white man in traveling through our 
country enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I 
do you : we dry him if he is wet ; we warm him if he 
is cold and give him meat and drink that he may allay 
his thirst and hunger ; and we spread soft furs for 
him to rest and sleep on. We demand nothing in 
return. But if I go into a white man's house at Albany 
and ask for victuals and drink, they say : * Where is 



254 AUT0BI0GBAPE7 OF 

your money?' and if I have none they say : ^ Get out, 
you Indian dog !' You see they have not learned those 
little good things that we need no meetings to be in- 
structed in, because our mothers taught them to us 
when we were children ; and therefore it is impossible 
their meetings should be, as they say, for any such 
purpose or have any such effect : they are only to 
contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver." 



BENJAMIN mANKLiN. 265 



A PETITION OF THE LEFT HAKD. 

ro THOSE WHO HAVE THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF EDUCA- 
TION. 

I ADDRESS myself to all the friends of youth, and 
conjure them to direct their compassionate regards to 
my unhappy fate, in order to remove the prejudices of 
which I am the victim. There are twin sisters of us ; 
•and the two eyes of man do not more resemble nor 
are capable of being upon better terms with each other 
than my sister and myself, were it not for the partial- 
ity of our parents, who make the most injurious dis- 
tinctions between us. From my infancy I have been 
led to consider my sister as a being of a more elevated 
rank. I was suffered to grow up without the least in- 
struction, while nothing was spared in her education. 
She had masters to teach her writing, drawing, music, 
and other accomplishments ; but if by chance I touched 
a pencil, a pen, or a needle, I was bitterly rebuked ; 
and more than once have I been beaten for being awk- 
ward and wanting a graceful manner. It is true, my 
sister associated me with her upon some occasions ; 
but she always made a point of taking the lead, call- 
ing upon me only from necessity or to figure by her 
side. 

But conceive riot, sirs, that my complaints are in- 
stigated merely by vanity. No, my uneasiness is 
occasioned by an object much more serious. It is the 



o-(5 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

practice in our family that the whole business of pro- 
viding for its subsistence* falls upon my sister and 
myself. If any indisposition should attack my sis- 
ter— and I mention it in confidence upon this occa- 
sion that she is subject to the gout, the rheumatism, 
and cramp, without making mention of other acci- 
dents—what would be the fate of our poor family? 
Must not the regret of our family be excessive at 
having placed so great a difference between sisters 
w^ho are so perfectly equal? Alas! we must perish 
from distress ; for it would not be in my power even 
to scrawl a suppliant petition for relief, having been 
obliged to employ the hand of another in transcrib- 
ing the request which 1 have now the honor to 
prefer to you. 

Condescend, sirs, to make my parents sensible of 
the injustice of an exclusive tenderness, and of the 
necessity of distributing their care and affection 
among all their children equally. I am, with a pro- 
found respect, sirs, your obedient servant, 

The Left Hand, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 267 



THE WHISTLE* 

I EECEivED my dear friend's two letters, one for 
Wednesday, one for Saturday. This is again Wednes- 
day. I do not deserve one for to-day, because I have 
not answered the former. But, indolent as I am, and 
averse to writing, the fear of having no more of your 
pleasing epistles if I do not contribute to the corre- 
spondence obliges me to take up my pen ; and as Mr. 
B. has kindly sent me word that he sets out to morrow 
to see you, instead of spending this Wednesday even- 
ing, as I have done its namesakes, in your delightful 
company, I sit down to spend it in thinking of you, in 
writing to you, and in thinking over and over again 
your letters. 

I am charmed with your description of Paradise 
and with your plan of living there, and I approve 
much of your conclusion that in the mean time we 
should draw all the good we can from this world. In 
my opinion, we might all draw more good from it than 
we do and suffer less evils if we would take care not 
to give too much for whistles. For to me it seems 
that most of the unhappy people we meet with are 
become so by neglect of that caution. 

You ask what I mean? You love stories and will 
excuse my telling one of myself. 

* This was written by Franklin to Madame Brillon November 
10th, 1779, when he was envoy to the court of France. 



258 -4 UTOBIOQRAPHY OP 

When I was a child of seven years old my friends 
on a holiday filled my pocket with coppers. I went 
directly to a shop were they sold toys for children, 
and being charmed with the sound of a whistle that I 
met by the way in the hands of another boy, I volun- 
tarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then 
came home and went whistling all over the house, 
much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the 
family. My brothers and sisters and cousins, under- 
standing the bargain I had made, told me I had given 
four times as much for it as it was worth, put me in 
mind what good things I might have bought with the 
rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for my 
folly that I cried with vexation ; and the reflection 
gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me 
pleasure. 

This, however, was afterward of use to me, the im- 
pression continuing on my mind, so that often when I 
was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing I said to 
myself, don't give too much for the whistle : and I 
saved my money. 

As I grew up, came into the world, and observed 
the actions of men, 1 thought I met with many, very 
many, who gave too much for the whistle. 

When I saw one too ambitious to court favor, sac- 
rificing his time in attendance on levees, his repose, 
his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain 
it, I have said to myself, this man gives too much for 
his whistle. 

When I saw another fond of popularity constantly 
employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his 
own affairs and ruining them by that neglect, he pays, 
indeed, said I, too much for his whistle. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 259 

If I knew a miser who gave up any kind of a com- 
fortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to 
others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens and the 
joys of benevolent friendship for the sake of accumu- 
lating wealth, poor man, said I, you pay too much for 
vour whistle. 

When I met with a man of pleasure sacrificing 
every laudable improvement of the mind or of his for- 
tune to mere corporal sensations, and ruining his 
health in their pursuit, mistaken man, said I, you are 
providing pain for yourself instead of pleasure ; you 
give too much for your whistle. 

If I see one fond of appearance or fine clothes, fine 
houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his 
fortune, for which he contracts debts and ends his 
career in a prison, alas ! say I, he has paid dear, very 
dear, for his whistle. 

When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl mar- 
ried to an ill-natured brute of a husband, what a 
pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a 
whistle ! 

In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries 
of mankind are brought upon them by the false esti- 
mates they have made of the value of things, and by 
their o;ivino: too much for their whistles. 

Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy peo- 
ple when I consider that with all this wisdom of 
which I am boasting there are certain things in the 
world so tempting, for example, the apples of King 
John, which happily are not to be bought ; for if they 
were put up to sale by auction, I might very easily be 
led to ruin mj^-self in the purchase, and find that I had 
once more given too much for the whistle. 



260 ^ UT0BI0GRAPH7 OP 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN FEANKLIN AND 
THE GOUT. 

Midnight, October 22d, 1780. 

FranTclin. Eh! oh! eh! What have I done to 
merit these cruel sufferings ? 

Oout Many things: you have ate and drunk too 
freely and too much indulged those legs of yours in 
their indolence. 

Franklin. Who is it that accuses me ? 

Gout. It is I, even I, the Gout. 

FranMin. What ! my enemy in person ? 

Gout. No, not your enemy. 

Franklin. I repeat it — my enemy ; for you would 
not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good 
name; you reproach me as a glutton and a tippler ; 
now all the world, that knows me, will allow that I 
am neither the one nor the other. 

Gout. The world may think as it pleases ; it is 
always very complaisant to itself and sometimes to its 
friends ; but I very well know that the quantity of 
meat and drink proper for a man who takes a reason- 
able degree of exercise would be too much for an- 
other who never takes any. 

Franklin. I take — eh ! oh ! — as much exercise — 
eh ! — as I can. Madam Gout. You know my seden- 
tary state, and on that account it would seem, Madam 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 261 

Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not 
altogether my own fault. 

Gout. Not a jot ; your rhetoric ^nd your politeness 
are thrown away ; your apology avails nothing. If 
your situation in life is a sedentary one, your amuse- 
ments, your recreations, at least, should be active. 
You ought to walk or ride, or if the weather prevents 
that, play at billiards. But let us examine your course 
of life. While the mornings are long and you have 
leisure to go abroad, what do you do ? Why, instead 
of gaining an appetite for breakfast by salutary ex- 
ercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or 
newspapers which commonly are not worth the reading. 
Yet vou eat an inordinate breakfast — four dishes of 
tea, with cream, and one or two buttered toasts, with 
slices of hung beef, which, I fancy, are not things the 
most easily digested. Immediately afterward you sit 
down to write at your desk or converse with persons 
who apply to you on business. Thus the time passes 
till one without any kind of bodily exercise. But all 
this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sed- 
entary condition. But what is your practice after 
dinner ? Walking in the beautiful gardens of those 
friends with whom you have dined would be the choice 
of a man of sense ; yours is to be fixed down to chess, 
where you are found engaged for two or three hours ! 
This is your perpetual recreation, which is the least 
eligible of any for a sedentary man, because, instead 
of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid atten- 
tion it requires helps to retard the circulation and ob- 
struct internal secretions. Wrapped in the speculations 
of this wretched game, you destroy your constitution. 
What can be expected from such a course of living 



^62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

but a body replete with stagnant humors, ready to fall 
a prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the 
Gout, did not occasionally bring you relief by agitat- 
ing those humors and so purifying or dissipating them ? 
If it was in some nook or alley in Paris, deprived of 
walks, that you played awhile at chess after dinner, 
this might be excusable ; but the same taste prevails 
with you in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or Savoy — 
places where there are the finest gardens and walks, a 
pure air, beautiful women, and most agreeable and in- 
structive conversation ; all of which you might enjo}^ 
by frequenting the walks. But these are rejected for 
this abominable game of chess. Fie, then, Mr. Frank- 
lin ! But amid my instructions I had almost forgot to 
administer my wholesome corrections; so take that 
twinge — and that ! 

Franklin. Oh ! eh ! oh ! oh-h-h ! As much in- 
struction as you please. Madam Gout, and as many 
reproaches ; but pray, madam, a truce with your cor- 
rections ! 

Gout. No, sir, no. I will not abate a particle of 
what is so much for your good ; therefore — - 

Franklin. Oh ! eh-h-h ! It is not fair to say I 
take no exercise, when I do very often, going out to 
dine and returning in my carriage. 

Gout That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most 
slight and insignificant, if you allude to the motion of 
a carriage suspended on springs. By observing the 
degree of heat obtained by different kinds of motion, 
we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise 
given by each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to 
walk in winter with cold feet, in an hour's time you 
will be in a glow all over ; ride on horseback, the same 



IBENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 263 

effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours' round 
trotting ; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you 
have mentioned, you may travel all da}^ and gladly 
enter the last inn to warm your feet by the fire. Flat- 
ter yourself, then, no longer that half an hour's airing 
in your carriage deserves the name of exercise. Provi- 
dence has appointed few to roll in carriages, while he 
has given to all a pair of legs, which are machines 
infinitely more commodious and serviceable. Be grate- 
ful, then, and make a proper use of yours. Would 
you know how they forward the circulation of your 
fluids in the very action of transporting you from 
place to place, observe, when you walk, that all 
your weight is alternately thrown from one leg to 
the other ; this occasions a great pressure on the ves- 
sels of the foot and repels their contents ; when re 
lieved, by the weight of being thrown on the other 
foot, the vessels of the first are allowed to replenish, 
and by a return of this weight this repulsion again 
succeeds; thus accelerating the circulation of the 
blood. The heat produced in any given time depends 
on the degree of this acceleration ; the fluids are 
shaken, the humors alternated, the secretions facili- 
tated, and all goes well ; the cheeks are ruddy and 
health is established. Behold your fair friend at 
Auteuil,* a lady who received from bounteous nature 
more really useful science than half a dozen such 
pretenders to philosophy as you have been able to 
extract from all your books. When she honors you 
with a visit it is on foot. She walks all hours of the 
day and leaves indolence and its concomitant maladies 

H II ■ I I II I ■ , i .1 I. Ill « ■ - , . * 

* Madame Helvetius. 



264 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

to be endured by her horses. In this see at once the 
preservative of her health and personal charms. But 
when you go to Auteuil you must have your carriage, 
though it is no further from Passy to Auteuil than 
from Auteuil to Passy. 

FranMin. Your reasonings grow very tiresome. 

Gout. I stand corrected. I will be silent and con- 
tinue my office ; take that, and that. 

FranMin. Oh ! oh-h ! Talk on, I pray you ! 

Gout. JSTo, no. I have a good number of twinges 
for you to-night, and you may be sure of some more 
to-morrow. 

FranMin. What, with such a fever ! I shall go 
distracted. Oh ! eh ! Can no one bear it for me? 

Gout. Ask that of your horses ; they have served 
you faithfully. 

FranMin. How can you so cruelly sport with my 
torments? 

Gout. Sport ! I am very serious. I have here a 
list of offenses against your own health distinctly 
written, and can justify every stroke inflicted on you. _ 

FranMin. Eead it, then. '^ 

Gout. It is too long a detail, but I will briefly 
taention some particulars. 

FranMin. Proceed. I am all attention. 

Gout. Do you remember how often you have 
promised yourself the following morning a walk in 
the grove of Boulogne, in the Garden de la Muette, or 
in your own garden, and have violated your promise, 
alleging at one time it was too cold, at another too 
warm, too windy, too moist, or what else you pleased, 
when in truth it was too nothing but your inseparable 
love of ease ? 



:BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 265 

FraynMin. That, I confess, may have happened 
occasionally, probably ten times in a year. 

Gout. Your confession is very far short of the 
truth ; the gross amount is one hundred and ninety- 
nine times. 

Franklin, Is it possible ? 

Gout. So possible that it is fact ; you may rely 
on the accuracy of my statement. You know M. 
Brillon's gardens and what fine walks they contain ; 
you know the handsome flight of a hundred steps 
which lead from the terrace above to the lawn below. 
You have been in the practice of visiting this amiable 
family twice a week after dinner, and it is a maxim of 
your own that '' a man may take as much exercise in 
walking a mile, up and down stairs, as in ten on level 
ground." What an opportunity was here for you to 
have had exercise in both these ways! Did you 
embrace it, and how often ? 

Franklin. I cannot immediately answer that ques- 
tion. 

Gout I will do it for you. Not once, 

Franklin. Not once ? 

Gout. Even so. During the summer you went there 
at six o'clock. You found the charming lady, with 
her lovely children and friends, eager to walk with 
you and entertain you with their agreeable conversa- 
tion ; and what has been your choice ? Why, to sit 
on the terrace, satisfy yourself with the fine prospect, 
and passing your eye over the beauties of the garden 
below, without taking one step to descend and walk 
about in them. On the contrary, you call for tea and 
the chess-board ; and lo ! you are occupied in your 
seat till nine o'clock, and that besides two hours' play 



366 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

after dinner; and then, instead of walking home, 
which would have bestirred you a little, you step into 
your carriage. How absurd to suppose that all this 
carelessness can be reconcilable with health without 
my interposition ! 

Franklin. I am convinced now of the justness of 
Poor Eichard's remark that " Our debts and our sins 
are always greater than we think for." 

Gout. So it is. You philosophers are sages in your 
maxims and fools in your conduct. 

Franhlin. But do you charge among my crimes 
that I return in a carriage from M. Brillon's ? 

Gout. Certainly; for having been seated all the 
while, you cannot object the fatigue of the day, and 
cannot want, therefore, the relief of a carriage. 

Franklin. What, then, would you have me do with 
my carriage ? 

Gout. Burn it if you choose : you would at least get 
heat out of it once in this way ; or, if you dislike that 
proposal, here's another for you : observe the poor 
peasants who work in the vinej'^ards and grounds 
about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, etc.; 
you may find every daj'' among these deserving crea- 
tures four or five old men and women, bent and per- 
haps crippled by weight of years and too long and too 
great labor. After a most fatiguing day these people 
have to trudge a mile or two to their smoky huts. 
Order your coachman to set them down. This is an 
act that will be good for your soul ; and at the same 
time after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on 
foot, that will be good for your body. 

Franklin. Ah ! how tiresome you are ! 

Gout. Well, then, to my office ; it should not be 
forgotten that I am your physician. There ! 



BENJAMIN FRANKLm. 267 

Franklin, Oh-h-h ! What a devil of a physician ! 

Gout How ungrateful you are to say so ! Is it not 
I who, in the character of your physician, have saved 
you from the palsy, dropsy, and apoplexy? one or 
other of which would have done for you long ago but 
for me. 

FranTdin. I submit and thank you for the past, but 
entreat the discontinuance of 3^our visits for the future ; 
for in my mind one had better die than be cured so 
dolefully. Permit me just to hint that I have also not 
been unfriendly to you. I never feed physician or 
quack of any kind to enter the list against you ; if, 
then, you do not leave me to my repose, it may be 
said you are ungrateful too. 

Gout, I can scarcely acknowledge that as an ob- 
jection. As to quacks, I despise them ; they may kill 
you indeed, but cannot injure me. And as to regular 
physicians, they are at last convinced that the gout, in 
such a subject as you are, is no disease, but a remedy; 
and wherefore cure a remedy ? But to our business ; 
there! 

FranTdin. Oh! oh! for Heaven's sake leave me, 
and I promise faithfully never more to play at chess, 
but to take exercise daily and live temperately. 

Gout. I know you too well. You promisefair, but 
after a few months of good health you will return to 
your old habits; your fine promises will be forgotten 
like the forms of the last j^ear's clouds. Let us, then, 
finish the account, and I w^ill go. But I leave you 
with an assurance of visiting you again at a proper time 
and place ; for my object is your good, and you are 
sensible now that 1 am your real friend. 



268 AUTOBIOGBAPHT OF 



THE ART OF PROCUEING PLEASANT 
DREAMS. 

INSCRIBED TO MISS , BEING WRITTEN AT HER 

REQUEST. 

As a great part of our life is spent in sleep, during 
which we have sometimes pleasant and sometimes 
painful dreams, it becomes of some consequence to 
obtain the one kind and avoid the other ; for whether 
real or imaginary, pain is pain and pleasure is pleas- 
ure. If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that 
painful dreams are avoided. If, while we sleep, we 
can have any pleasant dreams, it is, as the French say, 
autant de gagne^ so much added to the pleasure of 
life. 

To this end it is, in the first place, necessary to be 
careful in preserving health by due exercise and great 
temperance ; for in sickness the imagination is dis- 
turbed, and disagreeable, sometimes terrible, ideas are 
apt to present themselves. Exercise should precede 
meals, not immediately follow them ; the first pro- 
motes, the latter, unless moderate, obstructs digestion. 
If, after exercise, we feed sparingly, the digestion will 
be easy and good, the body lightsome, the temper 
cheerful, and all the animal functions performed 
agreeably. Sleep, when it follows, will be natural and 
undisturbed, while indolence, with full feeding, occa< 
fions nightmares and horrors inexpressible; we fall 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 269 

from precipices, are assaulted by wild beasts, murderers, 
and demons, and experience every variety of distress. 
Observe, however, that the quantities of food and 
exercise are relative things : those who move much 
may, and indeed ought to, eat more ; those who use little 
exercise should eat little. In general, mankind, since 
the improvement of cookery, eat about twice as much 
as nature requires. Suppers are not bad if we have 
not dined ; but restless nights follow hearty suppers 
after full dinners. Indeed, as there is a difference in 
constitutions, some rest well after these meals ; it costs 
them only a frightful dream and an apoplexy, after 
which they sleep till doomsday. Nothing is more 
common in the newspapers than instances of people 
who, after eating a hearty supper, are found dead 
abed in the morning. 

Another means of preserving health to be attended 
to is the having a constant supply of fresh air in your 
bedchamber. It has been a great mistake, the sleeping 
in rooms exactly closed and the beds surrounded by 
curtains. No outward air that may come in to you is 
so unwholesome as the unchanged air, often breathed, 
of a close chamber. As boiling water does not grow 
hotter by long boiling if the particles that receive 
greater heat can escape, so living bodies do not 
putrify if the particles, so fast as they become putrid, 
can be thrown off. Nature expels them by the pores 
of the skin and lungs, and in a free, open air they are 
carried off ; but in a close room we receive them again 
and again, though they become more and more corrupt. 
A number of persons crowded into a small room thus 
spoil the air in a few minutes, and even render it 
mortal as the Black Hole at Calcutta. A single per 



270 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

son is said to spoil only a gallon of air per minute, 
and therefore requires a longer time to spoil a cham- 
berf ul ; but it is done, however, in proportion, and 
many putrid disorders hence have their origin. It is 
recorded of Methuselah, who, being the longest liver, 
may be supposed to have best preserved his health, 
that he slept always in the open air ; for when he 
had lived five hundred years an angel said to him : 
"Arise, Methuselah, and build thee an house, for thou 
shalt live yet five hundred years longer." But Methu- 
selah answered and said : " If I am to live but five 
hundred years longer, it is not worth while to build 
me an house ; I will sleep in the air, as I have been 
used to do." Physicians, after having for ages con- 
tended that the sick should not be indulged with 
fresh air, have at length discovered that it may do 
them good. It is therefore to be hoped that they 
may in time discover likewise that it is not hurtful to 
those who are in health, and that we may then be cured 
of the aerophobia that at present distresses weak minds, 
and makes them choose to be stifled and poisoned 
rather than leave open the window of a bedchamber 
or put down the glass of a coach. 

Confined air, when saturated with perspirable mat- 
ter, will not receive more, and that matter must 
remain in our bodies and occasion diseases; but V- 
gives us some previous notice of its being about to b« 
hurtful by producing certain uneasiness, slight indeed 
at first, such as with regard to the lungs is a trifling 
sensation and to the pores of the skin a kind of 
restlessness which is difficult to describe, and few that 
feel it know the cause of it. But we may recollect 
that sometimes, on waking in the night, we have^ if 



:BENJAMm FBANKLIK %n 

warmly covered, found it difficult to get asleep again. 
We turn often, without finding repose in any position. 
This fidgetiness (to use a vulgar expression for want 
of a better) is occasioned wholly by uneasiness in the 
skin, owing to the retention of the perspirable matter, 
the bedclothes having received their quantity, and 
being saturated, refusing to take any more. To be- 
come sensible of this by an experiment, let a person 
keep his position in the bed, throw off the bedclothes, 
and suffer fresh air to approach the part uncovered of 
his body ; he will then feel that part suddenly re- 
freshed, for the air will immediately relieve the skin 
by receivmg, licking up, and carrying off the load of 
perspirable matter that approaches the warm skin, in 
receiving its part of that vapor, receives therewith a 
degree of heat that rarefies and renders it lighter, by 
cooler and therefore heavier fresh air, which for a 
moment supplies its place, and then, being likewise 
changed and warmed, gives way to a succeeding quan- 
tity. This is the order of nature to prevent animals 
being infected by their own perspiration. He will 
now be sensible of the difference between the part ex- 
posed to the air and that which, remaining sunk in 
the bed, denies the air access ; for this part now man- 
ifests its uneasiness more distinctly by the com- 
parison, and the seat of the uneasiness is more plainly 
perceived than when the whole surface of the body 
was affected by it. 

Here, then, is one great and general cause of 
unpleasing dreams. For when the body is uneasy 
the mind will be disturbed by it, and disagreeable 
ideas of various kinds will in sleep be the natural 
consequences. The remedies, preventive and curativQ- 
follow^ 



2^2 AtJTOBIOGHAPHY OS" 

1. By eating moderately (as before advised for 
health's sake) less perspirable matter is produced in 
a given time ; hence the bedclothes receive it longer 
before they are saturated, and we may therefore sleep 
longer before we are made uneasy by their refusing to 
receive any more. 

2. By using thinner and more porous bedclothes, 
which will suffer the perspirable matter more easily 
to pass through them, we are less incommoded, such 
being longer tolerable. 

3. When you are awakened by this uneasiness and 
find you cannot easily sleep again, get out of bed, beat 
up and turn your pillow, shake the bedclothes well, 
with at least twenty shakes, then throw the bed open 
and leave it to cool ; in the mean while, continuing 
undressed, walk about your chamber till your skin has 
had time to discharge its load, which it will do sooner 
as the air may be dryer and colder. When you begin 
to feel the cold air unpleasant, then return to your 
bed and you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will 
be sweet and pleasant. All the scenes presented to 
your fancy will be, too, of the pleasing kindi I am 
often as agreeably entertained with them as by the 
scenery of an opera. If you happen to be too indolent 
to get out of bed, you may, instead of it, lift up your 
bedclothes with one arm and leg, so as to draw in a 
good deal of fresh air, and by letting them fall force 
it out again. This, repeated twenty times, will so 
clear them of the perspirable matter they have im- 
bibed as to permit your sleeping well for some time 
afterward. But this latter method is not equal to the 
former. 

Those who do not love trouble and can afford to 



BENJAMIN FBANKLW. 2*73 

have two beds will find great luxury in rising, when 
they wake in a hot bed, and going, into the cool one. 
Such shifting of beds would also be of great service to 
persons ill of a fever, as it refreshes and frequently 
procures sleep. A very large bed that will admit a 
removal so distant from the first situation as to be 
cool and sweet may in a degree answer the same end. 
One or two observations more will conclude this 
little piece. Care must be taken, when you lie down, 
to dispose your pillow so as to suit your manner of 
placing your head and to be perfectly easy ; then 
place your limbs so as not to bear inconveniently hard 
upon one another, as, for instance, the joints of your 
ankles ; for though a bad position may at first give 
but little pain and be hardly noticed, yet a continu- 
ance will render it less tolerable, and the uneasiness 
may come on while you are asleep and disturb your 
imagination. These are the rules of the art. But 
though they will generally prove effectual in produc- 
ing the end intended, there is a case in which the 
most punctual observance of them will be totally fruit- 
less. I need not mention the case to you, my dear 
friend; but my account of the art would be imperfect 
without it. The case is when the person who desires 
to have pleasant dreams has not taken care to pre- 
serve, what is necessary above all things, 

A Good Conscience. 



3t4 AtTTOSIOORAPHY OP 



THE EPHEMEEA : 

AN EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE. 

To Madame Brillon, of Passy. 

Written in 1778. 

You may remember, my dear friend, that when we 
lately spent tbat happy day in the delightful garden 
and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little 
in one of our walks and stayed some time behind the 
company. We had been shown numberless skeletons 
of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera, whose 
successive generations, we were told, were bred and 
expired within the day. I happened to see a living 
company of them on a leaf who appeared to be en- 
gaged in conversation. You know I understand all 
the inferior anioial tongues. My too great applica- 
tion to the study of them is the best excuse I can give 
for the little progress I have made in your charming 
language. I listened through curiosity to the dis- 
course of these little creatures ; but as the}^ in their 
national vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could 
make but little of their conversation. I found, however, 
by some broken expressions that I heard now and 
then, they were disputing warmly on the merit of two 
foreign musicians, one a cousin^ the other a moscheto; 
in which dispute they spent their time, seemingly as re- 
gardless of the shortness of life as if they had been 



BENJAMJif FRANKim. *l% 

sure of living a month. Happy people ! thought I ; 
you are certainly under a wise, just, and mild govern- 
ment, sinee you have no public grievances to complain 
of, nor any subject of contention but the perfections 
and imperfections of foreign music. 1 turned my 
head from them to an old gray-headed one, who was 
single on another leaf and talking to himself. Being 
amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing, 
in hopes it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so 
much indebted for the most pleasing of all amuse- 
ments, her delicious company and heavenly harmony. 
" It was," said he, " the opinion of learned philoso- 
phers of our race who lived and flourished long before 
my time that this vast world, the Moulin Joly, could 
not itself subsist more than eighteen hours ; and I 
think there w^as some foundation for that opinion, 
since by the apparent motion of the great luminary 
that gives life to all nature, and which in my time has 
evidently declined considerably toward the ocean at 
the end of our earth, it must then finish its course, be 
extinguished in the waters that surround us, and leave 
the world in cold and darkness, necessarily producing 
universal death and destruction. I have lived seven 
of those hours, a great age, being no less than four 
hundred and twenty minutes of time. How very few 
of us continue so long! I have seen generations born, 
flourish, and expire. My present friends are the chil- 
dren and grandchildren of the friends of my youth, 
who are now, alas ! no more. And I must soon follow 
them; for by the course of nature, though still in 
health, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight 
minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and 
labor in amassing honey-dew on this leaf which I 



2% AUTOBtOGBAPHt OP 

cannot live to enjoy ? What the political struggles 1 
have been engaged in for the good of my compatriot 
inhabitants of this bush, or my philosophical studies 
for the benefit of our race in general ? for in politics 
what can laws do without morals ? Our present race 
of ephemerse will in a course of minutes become corrupt, 
like those of other and older bushes, and consequently 
as wretched. And in philosophy how small our 
progress ! Alas ! art is long and life is short. My 
friends would comfort me with the idea of a name, 
they say, T shall leave behind me, and they tell me I 
have lived long enough to nature and to glory. But 
what will fame be to an ephemera who no longer 
exists ? And what will become of all history in the 
eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole 
Moulin Joly, shall come to its end and be buried in 
universal ruin ?" 

To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures 
now remain but the reflection of a long life spent in 
meaning well, the sensible conversation of a few good 
lady ephemerae, and now^ and then a kind smile and a 
tune from the ever-amiable Irillante. 

B. Franklin. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. %n 



TO MISS GEOEGIANA SHIPLEY, 

On the Loss of her American Squirrel, who, escaping 
FROM his Cage, was Killed by a Shepherd's Dog. 

London, 26th September, 1772. 
Dear Miss : I lament with you most sincerely the 
unfortunate end of poor Mungo. Few squirrels were 
better accomplished, for he had a good education, had 
traveled far, and seen much of the world. As he had 
the honor of being, for his virtues, your favorite, he 
should not go, like common skuggs, without an elegy 
or an epitaph. Let us give him one in the monumental 
style and measure, which, being neither prose nor 
verse, is perhaps the properest for grief ; since to use 
common language would look as if we were not 
affected, and to make rhymes would seem trifling in 
sorrow. 

EPITAPH. 

Alas! poor Mungo! 
Happy wert thou, hadst thou known 

Thy own felicity. 

Eemote from the fierce bald eagle, 

Tyrant of thy native woods, 

Thou hadst naught to fear from his piercing talons, 

Nor from the murdering gun 

Of the thoughtless sportsman. 

Safe in thy wired castle, 
Grimalkin never could annoy thee. 



27g AUTOBIOGBAPET off 

Daily wert thou fed with the choicest viands, 

By the fair hand of an indulgent mistress; 

But, discontented, 

Thou wouldst have more freedom. 

Too soon, alas! didst thou obtain it; 

And wandering, 

Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel Rangerl 

Learn hence, 

Ye who blindly seek more liberty, 

Whether subjects, sons, squirrels, or daughters, 

That apparent restraint may be real protection, 

Yielding piece and plenty 

With security. 

Ton see, my dear miss, how much more decent and 
proper this broken style is than if we were to say by 
way of epitaph — 

Here Skugg 
Lies snug 
As a bug 
In a rug. 

And yet, perhaps, there are people in the world of so 
little feeling as to think that this would be a good 
enough epitaph for poor Mungo. 

If you wish it, I shall procure another to succeed 
him ; but perhaps you will now choose some other 
amusement. 

Remember me affectionately to all the good family, 
and believe me ever your affectionate friend, 

B. Fbanklin. 



BENJAMIN FMANKLIN. 279 



FAMILIAR LETTERS. 
I. 

TO MISS JANE FRANKLIN, 

Philadelphia, 6th January, 1726-27. 

Dear Sister: I am highly pleased with the ac- 
count Captain Freeman gives me of you. I always 
judged by your behavior when a child that you 
would make a good, agreeable woman, and you 
know you were ever mv peculiar favorite. I have 
been thinking what would be a suitable present for 
me to make and for you to receive, as I hear you 
are grown a celebrated beauty. I had almost de- 
termined on a tea-table; but when I considered 
that the character of a good housewife was far 
preferable to that of being only a pretty gentlewoman, 
I concluded to send you a spinning-wheel, which I 
hope you will accept as a small token of my sincere 
love and affection. 

Sister, farewell, and remember that modesty, as 
it makes the most homely virgin amiable and charm- 
ing, so the want of it infallibly renders the most 
perfect beauty disagreeable and odious. But when 
that brightest of female virtue shines among other 
perfections of body and mind in the same per- 
son it makes the woman more lovely than an 



280 A UTOBIOGBAPEY OF 

angel. Excuse this freedom and use the same with 
me. 
1 am, dear Jenny, your loving brother, 

B. Franklin. 



IL 

TO MRS. JANE MECOM."^ 

Philadelphia [date uncertain]. 

Dear Sister: I received your letter with one 
for Benny and one for Mr. Parker, and also two of 
Benny's letters of complaint, which, as you observe, 
do not amount to much. I should have had a very 
bad opinion of him if he had written to you those 
accusations of his master which you mention, be- 
cause from long acquaintance with his master, who 
lived some years in my house, I know him to be a 
sober, pious, and conscientious man; so that New- 
port, to whom you seem to have given too much 
credit, must have wronged Mr. Parker very much in 
his accounts, and have wronged Benny, too, if he says 
Benny told him such things, for I am confident he 
never did. 

As to the bad attendance afforded him in the small- 
pox, I believe, if the negro woman did not do her 
duty, her master or mistress would, if they had 
known it, have had that matter mended. But Mrs. 
Parker was herself, if I am not mistaken, sick at that 
time, and her child also. And though he gives that 
woman a bad character in general, all he charges her 
with in particular is that she never brought him what 

* Formerly Miss Jane Frauklin. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 281 

he called for directly, and sometimes not at all. He 
had the distemper favorably, and yet I suppose was 
bad enough to be, like other sick people, a little im- 
patient, and perhaps might think a short time long, 
and sometimes call for things not proper for one in 
his condition. 

As to clothes, I am frequently at New York, and I 
never saw him unprovided with what was good, decent, 
and sufficient. I was there no longer ago than March 
last, and he was then well clothed and made no com- 
plaint to me of any kind. I heard both his master 
and mistress call upon him on Sunday morning to get 
ready to go to meeting, and tell him of his frequently 
delaying and shuffling till it was too late, and he made 
not the least objection about clothes. I did not think 
it anything extraordinary that he should be some- 
times willing to evade going to meeting, for I be- 
lieve it is the case with all boys, or almost all. I have 
brought up four or five myself, and have frequently 
observed that if their shoes were bad they would 
say nothing of a new pair till Sunday morning, just as 
the bell rung, when, if j^ou asked them why they did 
not get ready, the answer was prepared, " I have no 
shoes,'' and so of other things, hats and the like ; or 
if they knew of anything that wanted mending, it was 
a secret till Sunday morning, and sometimes, I believe, 
they would rather tear a little than be without the 
excuse. 

As to going on petty errands, no boys love it, but 
all must do it. As soon as they become fit for better 
business they naturally get rid of that, for the master's 
interest comes in to their relief. I make no doubt 
but Mr. Parker will take another apprentice as soon 



282 AUTOBIOGRAPHT OF 

as he can meet with a likely one. In the mean time 
I should be glad if Benny would exercise a little 
patience. There is a negro woman that does a great 
many of those errands. 

1 do not think his going on board the privateer 
arose from any difference between him and his master 
or any ill-usage he had received. "When boys see 
prizes brought in and quantities of money shared 
among the men and their gay living, it fill their heads 
with notions that half-distract them and put them 
quite out of conceit with trades and the dull ways 
of getting money by working. This, I suppose, was 
Ben's case, the Catherine being just before arrived 
with three rich prizes ; and that the glory of having 
taken a privateer of the enemy, for which both officers 
and men were highly extolled, treated, presented, etc., 
worked strongly upon his imagination, you will see by 
his answer to my letter, is not unlikely. I send it to 
you inclosed. I wrote him largely on the occasion,, 
and though he might possibly, to excuse that slip to 
others, complain of his place, you rpay see he says 
not a syllable of any such thing to me. My only son, 
before I permitted him to go to Albany, left my house 
unknown to us all and got on board a privateer, from 
whence I fetched him. No one imagined it was hard 
usage at home that made him do this. Every one 
that knows me thinks that I am too indulgent a 
parent as well as a master. 

I shall tire you, perhaps, with the length of this 
letter, but I am the more particular in order, if pos- 
sible, to satisfy your mind about your son's situation. 
His master has, by a letter this post, desired me to 
write to him about his staying out of nights, sometimes 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. ^ 

all night, and refusing to give an account where he 
spends his time or in what company. This 1 had not 
heard of before, though I perceive you have. I do 
not wonder at his correcting him for that. If he was 
ray own son I should think his master did not do his 
duty by him if he omitted it, for to be sure it is the 
high road to destruction. And I think the correction 
very light and not likely to be very effectual if the 
strokes left no marks. 

His master says further as follows: "I think I 
can't charge my conscience with being much short of 
my duty to him. I shall now desire you, if you have 
not done it already, to invite him to lay his complaints 
before you, that I may know how to remedy them.'' 
Thus far the words of his letter, which giving me a 
fair opening to inquire into the affair, I shall accord- 
ingly do it, and I hope settle everything to all your 
satisfactions. In the mean time I have laid by your 
letters both to Mr. Parker and Benny, and shall not 
send them till I hear again from you, because I think 
your appearing to give ear to such groundless stories 
may give offense and create a greater misunderstand- 
ing, and because I think what you write to Benny 
about getting him discharged may unsettle his mind, 
and therefore improper at this time. 

I have a very good opinion of Benny in the main, 
and have great hopes of his becoming a worthy man, 
his faults being only such as are commonly incident 
to boys of his years, and he has many good qualities, 
for which I love him. I never knew an apprentice 
contented with the clothes allowed him by his master, 
let them be what they would. Jemmy Franklin, 
when with me, was always dissatisfied and grumbling. 



284 AIJTOBIOQRAPHY OP 

When I was last in Boston his aunt bid him go to a shop 
and please himself, which the gentleman did, and 
bought a suit of clothes on my account dearer by one- 
hali than any I ever aflforded myself, one suit ex- 
cepted ; which I don't mention by way of complaint 
of Jemmy, for he and I are good friends, but only to 
show you the nature of boys. 

I am, with love to brother and all yours and duty 
to mother, to whom I have not time now to write, 
your affectionate brother, B. Franklin. 



III. 

TO MRS. DEBORAH FRAl^KLIN. 

Gnadenhutten, 25th January, 1756. 

My dear Child : This day week we arrived here. 
I wrote to you the same day and once since. We all 
continue well, thanks be to God. We have been hin- 
dered with bad weather, yet our fort is in a good de- 
fensible condition, and we have every day more con- 
venient living. Two more are to be built, one on each 
side of this, at about fifteen miles' distance. I hope 
both will be done in a week or ten days, and then I 
purpose to bend my course homeward. 

We have enjoyed your roast beef and this day 
began on the roast veal. All agree that they are 
both the best that ever were of the kind. Your citi- 
zens, that have their dinner hot and hot, know 
nothing of good eating. We find it in nuich greater 
perfection when the kitchen is four-score miles from 
the dining-room. 



BENJAMm FRANKLIN. 285 

The apples are extremely welcome and do bravely 
to eat after our salt pork ; the minced pies are not yet 
come to hand, but I suppose *we shall find them 
among the things expected up from Bethlehem on 
Tuesday ; the capillaire is excellent, but none of us 
having taken cold as yet, we have only tasted it. 

As to our lodging, 'tis on deal feather-beds, in warm 
blankets, and much more comfortable than when we 
lodged at our inn the first night after we left home ; 
for the woman being about to put very damp sheets 
on the bed, we desired her to air them first ; half an 
hour afterward she told us the bed was ready and the 
sheets well aired. I got into bed, but jumped out 
immediately, finding them as cold as death and partly 
frozen. She had aired them indeed, but it was out 
upon the hedge. I was forced to wrap myself up in 
my great-coat and woolen trousers. Everything else 
about the bed was shockingly dirty. 

As 1 hope in a little time to be with you and my 
family and chat things over, I now only add that I 
am, dear Debby, 

Your affectionate husband, 

B. Fkanklin, 



IV. 

TO MISS HUBBARD.* 

Philadelphia, 23d February, 1756. 
I CONDOLE with you. We have lost a most dear and 
valuable relation. But it is the will of God and nature 

* This letter was occasioned by the death of Dr. Franklin's 
brother, Mr, John Franklin. 



^86 AtnroMOGMAPMf OP 

that thes© mortal bodies be laid aside when the «oul is 
to enter into real life. This is rather an embryo state, 
a preparation for living. A man is not completely born 
until he be dead. Why, then, should we grieve that a 
new child is born among the immortals, a new member 
added to their happy society ? 

We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us 
while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring 
knowledge, or in doing good to our fellow-creatures, 
is a kind and benevolent act of God. When they be- 
come unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead 
of pleasure, instead of an aid become an incumbrance, 
and answer none of the intentions for which they 
were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a 
way is provided by which we may get rid of them. 
Death is that way. We ourselves, in some cases, 
prudently choose a partial death. A mangled, painful 
limb which cannot be restored we willingly cut off. 
He who plucks out a tooth parts with it freely, since 
the pain goes with it ; and he who quits the whole 
body parts at once with all pains and possibilities of 
pains and diseases which it was liable to or capable of 
making him suffer. 

Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party 
of pleasure which is to last forever. His chair was 
ready first and he is gone before us. We could not 
all conveniently start together, and why should yovi 
and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow 
and know where to find him ? Adieu, 

B. Fkanklin. 



BBNJAMm FRANKLIN. 281 

TO MRS. JANE MECOM. 

New York, 19th April, 1757. 

Dear Sister : I wrote a few lines to you yesterday, 
but omitted to answer yours relating to sister Douse. 
As having their own way is one of the greatest cora^ 
forts of life to old people, I think their friends should 
endeavor to accommodate them in that as well as in 
anything else. When they have long lived in a house 
it becomes natural to them ; the}' are almost as closely 
connected with it as the tortoise with his shell ; they 
•die if you tear them out of it ; old folks and old 
trees, if you remove them, 'tis ten to one that you kill 
them ; so let our good old sister be no more impor- 
tuned on that head. We are growing old fast our- 
selves and shall expect the same kind of indulgences ; 
if we give them we shall have a right to receive them 
in our turn. 

And as to her few fine things, I think she is in the 
right not to sell them, and for the reason she gives, 
that they will fetch but little ; when that little is 
spent they would be of no further use to her ; but 
perhaps the expectation of possessing them at her 
death may make that person tender and careful of her 
and helpful to her to the amount of ten times their 
value. If so they are put to the best use they possibly 
can be. 

I hope you visit sister as often as your atfairs will 
permit and afford her what assistance arid comfort 
you can in her present situation. Old age, infirmities, 
and poverty, joined, are afliictions enough. Tho 



388 ^ UTOBIOGRA PHY OF 

neglect and slights of friends and near relations should 
never be added. People in her circumstances are apt 
to suspect this, sometimes without cause ; appearances 
should, therefore, be attended to in our conduct toward 
them, as well as realities. I write by this post to 
Cousin Williams to continue his care, which 1 doubt 
not he w^ill do. 

We expect to sail in about a week, so that I ca^ 
hardly hear from you again on this side the water 
but let me have a line from you now and then while i 
am in London. I expect to stay there at least a 
twelvemonth. Direct your letters to be left for meat 
the Pennsylvania Cofifee-house, Birchin Lane, London. 

My love to all, from, dear sister. 

Your affectionate brother, 

B. Franklin. 

P. S. — April 25. We are still here and perhaps may 
be here a week longer. Once more adieu, my dear 
sister. 



VL 

TO MISS STEVENSON. 

Paris, 14th September, 1767- 
Dear Polly : I am always pleased with a letter 
from you, and I flatter myself you may be sometimes 
pleased in receiving one from me, though it should be 
of little importance, such as this, which is to consist of 
a few occasional remarks made here and in my journey 
hither. 

Soon after I left you in that agreeable society at 
Bromley, I took the resolution of making a trip with 



BENJAMIN FBANKLm. 289 

Sir John Pringle into France. We set out on' the 
28tb past. All the way to Dover we were furnished with 
post-chaises, hung so as to lean forward, the top coming 
down over one's eyes like a hood, as if to prevent one's 
seeing the ucontry; which being one of my great 
pleasures, I was engaged in perpetual disputes with the 
innkeepers, hostlers, and postilions about getting the 
straps taken up a hole or two before and let down as 
much behind, they insisting that the chaise leaning 
forward was an ease to the horses and that the con- 
trary would kill them. I suppose the chaise leaning 
forward looks to them like a willingness to go forward, 
and that its hanging back shows reluctance. They 
added other reasons that were no reasons at all, and 
made me, as upon a hundred other occasions, almost 
wish that mankind had never been endowed with a 
reasoning faculty, since they know so little how to 
make use of it and so often mislead themselves bv it, 
and that they had been furnished with a good sensible 
instinct instead of it. 

At Dover, the next morning, we embarked for 
Calais with a number of passengers who had never 
before been at sea. They would previously make a 
hearty breakfast, because if the wind should fail we 
might not get over till supper-time. Doubtless they 
thought that when they had paid for their breakfast 
they had a right to it, and that when they had swal- 
lowed it they were sure of it. But they had scarce 
been out half an hour before the sea laid claim to it, 
and they were obliged to deliver it up.. So that it 
seems there are. uncertainties, even beyond those be- 
tween the cup and the lip. If ever you go to sea, take 
my advice and live sparingly a day or two beforehand. 



SflO ^ UTOBIOGBAPHT OJT 

The sickness, if any, will be lighter and sooner over, 
"We got to Calais that evening. 

Various impositions we suffered from boatmen, por- 
ters, and the like, on both sides the water. I know 
not which are the most rapacious, the English or 
French ; but the latter have, with their knavery, 
the most politeness. 

The roads we found equally good with ours in Eng- 
land ; in some places paved with smooth stones, like 
our new streets, for many miles together, and rows of 
trees on each side, and yet there are no turnpikes. 
But then poor peasants complained to us grievously 
that they were obliged to work upon the roads fully 
two months in the year, without being paid for their 
labor. Whether this is truth or whether, like English- 
men, they grumble, cause or no cause, I have not yet 
been able to fully inform myself. 

The women we saw at Calais, on the road, at Bou- 
logne, and in the inns and villages, were generally of 
dark complexions ; but arriving at Abbeville we found 
a sudden change, a multitude of both women and men 
in that place appearing remarkably fair. Whether 
this is owing to a small colony of spinners, wool- 
combers, and weavers brought hither from Holland 
with the woolen manufactory about sixty years ago, 
or to their being less exposed to the sun than in other 
places, their business keeping them much within doors, 
I know not. Perhaps, as in some other cases, different 
causes may club in producing the effect, but the effect 
itself is certain. Never was I in a place of greater in- 
dustry, wheels and looms going in every housCc 

As soon as we left Abbeville the swarthiness re 
turned. I speak generally; for there are some fair 



BB2fJAMIlf FRANKLIN. J91 

women at Paris, who, I think, are not whitened by 
art. As to rouge, they don't pretend to imitate nature 
in laying it on. There is no gradual diminution of the 
color, from the full bloom in the middle of the cheek 
to the faint tint near the sides, nor does it show^ itself 
differently in different faces. I have not had the 
honor of being at any lady's toilette to see how it is 
laid on, but I fancy I can tell you how it is or raa}^ be 
done. Cut a hole of three inches in diameter in a 
piece of paper, place it on the side of your face in such 
a manner as that the top of the hole may be just under 
the eye, then with a brush dipped in the color paint 
face and paper together ; so when the paper is taken 
off there will remain a round patch of red exactly the 
form of the hole. This is the mode, from the ac- 
tresses on the stage upward, through all ranks of 
ladies to the princesses of the blood ; but it stops 
there, the queen not using it, having in the serenity, 
complacence, and benignity that shine so eminently 
in or rather through her countenance sufficient beauty, 
though now an old woman, to do extremely well 
without it. 

Tou see I speak of the queen* as if I had seen her ; 
and so I have, for you must know I have been at court. 
We went to Versailles last Sunday and had the honor 
of being presented to the king ; he spoke to both of us 
very graciously and very cheerfully, is a handsome 
man, has a very lively look, and appears younger than 
he is. In the evening we were at the Grand Concert^ 
where the family sup in public. The table was half a 
hollow square, the service gold. When either made a 

^ Wife of Louii XV. 



292 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

sign for drink the word was given by one of the 
waiters. A hoir ^our le roi or a loir pour la reine. 
Then two persons came from within, the one with 
wine and the other with water in carafes / each drank 
a little glass of what he brought, and then put both 
the carafes with a glass on a salver and then presented 
it. Their distance from each other was such that 
other chairs might have been placed between any two 
of them. An officer of the court brought us up through 
the crowd of spectators, and placed Sir John so as to 
stand between the queen and Madame Victoire. The 
king talked a good deal to Sir John, asking many 
questions about our royal family, and did me too the 
honor of taking some notice of me ; that is saying 
enough, for I would not have you think me so much 
pleased with this king and queen as to have a whit less 
regard than I used to have for ours. No Frenchman 
shall go beyond me in thinking my own king and 
queen the very best in the world and the most amiable. 
Versailles has had infinite sums laid out in building 
it and supplying it with water. Some say the expenses 
exceeded eighty millions sterling. The range of build- 
ings is immense ; the garden front most magnificent, 
all of hewn stone ; the number of statues, figures, urns, 
etc., in marble and bronze of exquisite workmanship, 
is beyond conception. But the water- works are out of 
repair, and so is great part of the front next the town, 
looking with its shabby, half-brick walls and broken 
windows not much better than the houses in Durham 
Yard. There is, in short, both at Yersailles and Paris, 
a prodigious mixture of magnificence and negligence, 
with every kind of elegance except that of cleanliness 
and what we call tidiness ; though I must do Paris the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 293 

justice to say that in two points of cleanliness tHey 
exceed us. The water they drink, though from the 
river, they render as pure as that of the best spring by 
filtering it through cisterns filled with sand, and the 
streets with constant sweeping are fit to walk in, 
though there is no paved footpath. Accordingly many 
well-dressed people are constantly seen walking in 
them. The crowds of coaches and chairs for this 
reason is not so great. Men as well as women carry 
umbrellas in their hands, which they extend in case of 
rain or too much sun ; and a man with an umbrella 
not taking up more than three foot square or nine 
square feet of the street, when, if in a coach, he would 
take up two hundred and forty square feet, you can 
easily conceive that though the streets here are narrow, 
they may be less incumbered. They are extremely 
well paved, and the stones, being generally cubes, 
when worn on one side mav be turned and become 
new. 

The civilities we everywhere receive give us the 
strongest impressions of French politeness. It seems 
to be a point settled here universally that strangers 
are to be treated with respect, and one has just the 
same deference shown one here by being a stranger as 
in England by being a lady. The custom-house officers 
at Port St. Denis, as we entered Paris, were about to 
seize two dozen of excellent Bordeaux wine given us 
at Boulogne, and which we brought with us ; but as 
soon as they found we were strangers it was imiaedi- 
ately remitted on that account. At the Church of 
.N"otre Dame, where we went to see a magnificent illa- 
mination, with figures, etc.. for the deceased dauphin- 
ess, we found an immense crowd, who were kept out 



394 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OV 

by guards ; but the officer being told that w© ware 
strangers from England, he immediately admitted us, 
accompanied and showed us everything. Why don't 
we practice this urbanity to Frenchmen ? Why should 
they be allowed to outdo us in anything? 

Here is an exhibition of painting, like ours in Lon- 
don, to which multitudes flock daily. I am not con- 
noisseur enough to judge which has most merit. Every 
night, Sundays not excepted, here are plays or operas ; 
and though the weather has been hot and the houses 
full, one is not incommoded by the heat so much as 
with us in winter. They must have some way of 
changing the air that we are not acquainted with. I 
shall inquire into it. 

Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in 
appearance. It is but about a fortnight since we left 
London, but the variety of scenes we have gone 
through makes it seem equal to six months' living in 
one place. Perhaps I have suffered a greater change, 
too, in my own person than I could have done in six 
years at home. I had not been here six days before 
my tailor and perruquier had transformed me into a 
Frenchman. Only think what a figure I make in 
a little bag-wig and with naked ears 1 They told 
me I was become twenty years younger and looked 
very gallant. 

This letter shall cost you a shilling, and you may 
consider it cheap when you reflect that it has cost me 
at least fifty guineas to get into the situation that 
enables me to write it. 

Besides, I might, if I had stayed at home, have 
won perhaps two shillings of you at cribbage. By 
th# way, now I mention cards, let m^ tell you 



benjamw mANKint. t^ 

that quadrille is nov7 out of fashion here, and 
English whist all the mode at Paris and the court. 

And pray look upon it as no small matter that, 
surrounded as I am by the glories of the world and 
amusements of all sorts, I remember you and Dolly 
and all the dear, good folks at Bromley. 'Tis true I 
can't help it, but must and ever shall remember you 
all with pleasure. 

Need I add that I am particularly, my dear, good 
friend, 

Yours most affectionately, 

B. Franklin. 



VIL 

TO Miss STEVENSON. 

Ckaven Street, 28th September, 1768. 
Dear Polly : The objection you make to rectifying 
our alphabet, that "it will be attended with incon- 
veniences and difficulties," is a natural one ; for it al- 
ways occurs when any reformation is proposed, 
whether in religion, government, laws, and even down 
as low as roads and wheel-carriages. The true ques- 
tion, then, is, not whether there will be any difficulties 
or inconveniences, but whether the difficulties may not 
be surmounted and whether the conveniences will not, 
on the whole, be greater than the inconveniences. In 
this case the difficulties are only in the beginning of 
the practice. When they are overcome the advan- 
tages are lasting. To either you or me, who spell well 
ia the present mode, I imagine the difficulty of chang- 



296 ^ UTOBIOQRAPHY OF 

ing that mode for the new is not so great but that w« 
might perfectly get over it in a week's time. 

As to those who do not spell well, if the two diffi- 
culties are compared — namely, that of teaching them 
true spelling in the present mode, and that of teaching 
them the new alphabet and the new spelling according 
to it — I am confident that the latter would be by far 
the least. They naturally fall into the new method 
already, as much as the imperfection of their alphabet 
will admit of. Their present bad spelling is only bad 
because contrary to the present bad rules. The diffi- 
culty of learning to spell well in the old way is so 
great that few attain it, thousands and thousands writ- 
ing on to old age without ever being able to acquire 
it. It is, besides, a difficult}^ continually increasing, as 
the sound gradually varies more and more from the 
spelling ; and to foreigners it makes the learning to 
pronounce our language as written in our books al- 
most impossible. 

Now, as to the inconveniences you mention : the first 
is that " all our etymologies would be lost, and con- 
sequently we could not ascertain the meaning of many 
words." Etymologies are at present very uncertain ; 
but, such as they are, the old books would still pre- 
serve them and etymologists would there find them. 
Words in the course of time change their meanings, 
as well as their spelling and pronunciation, and we do 
not look to etymology for their present meanings. If 
I should call a man a knave and a villain, he would 
hardly be satisfied with my telling him that one of the 
words originally signified only a lad or servant, and 
the other an under-plowman, or the inhabitant of a 
village. It is from present usage only that the mean- 
ing of words is to be determined, ^ 



hEnjAMIN FRANKLIN. ^9? 

Tour stcoud inconvenience is that " tht digtinction 
between words of different meaning and similar sound 
would be destroyed." That distinction is already- 
destroyed in pronouncing them, and you rely on the 
sense alone of the sentence to ascertain which of the 
several words similar in sound we intend. If this is 
sufficient in the rapidity of discourse it will be much 
more so in written sentences, which may be read 
leisurely and attended to more particularly in case of 
difficulty than you can attend to a past sentence 
while a speaker is hurrying you along with new ones. 

Your third inconvenience is that "all the books 
already written would be useless." This inconvenience 
would only come on gradually in a course of ages. 
You and I and other now living readers would hardly 
forget the use of them. People would long learn to 
read the old writing, though they practiced the new ; 
and the inconvenience is not greater than what has 
actually happened in a similar case in Italy. Formerly 
its inhabitants all spoke and wrote Latin ; as the 
language changed the spelling followed it. It is true 
that at present a mere unlearned Italian cannot read 
the Latin books, though they are still read and under- 
stood by many. But if the spelling had never beea 
changed he would now have found it much more 
difficult to read and write his own language, for 
w^ritten words would have no relation to sounds ; they 
would only have stood for things ; so that if he would 
express in writing the idea he has when he sounds 
the word Yescovo^ he must use the letters Episcopus. 
In short, whatever the difficulties and inconveniences 
now are, they will be more easily surmounted now than 
hereafter; and some time or other it must be done, or 



i^ AUfOBIOGRAPBY Op 

our writing will become the same with the Chinese a* 
to the diflBculty of learning and using it, and it would 
already have been such if we had continued the 
Saxon spelling and writing used by our forefathers. 
I am, my dear friend, 

Yours affectionately, 

B. Fbakklin. 



vin. 

to miss stevenson. 

October, 1768. 

I see very clearly the unhappiness of your situation, 
and that it does not arise from any fault in you. I 
pity you most sincerely. I should not, however, have 
thought of giving you advice on this occasion if you 
had not requested it, believing, as I do, that your own 
good sense is more than sufficient to direct you in 
every point of duty to others and yourself. If, then, 
I should advise you to anything that may be contrary 
to your own opinion, do not imagine that I shall con- 
demn you if you do not follow such advice. I shall 
only think that, from a better acquaintance with the 
circumstances, you form a better judgment of what is 
fil for you to do. 

Now I conceive with you that , both from 

her affection to you and from the long habit of having 
you with her, would really be miserable without you. 
Her temper, perhaps, was never of the best, and when 
that is the case age seldom mends it. Much of her 
unhappiness must arise from thence ; and since wrong 
turns of mind, when confirmed by time, are almost as 



BBNJAMm FRANKLIN. 299 

little in our power to cure as those of the body, I 
think with you that her case, is a compassionable 
one. 

If she had, though by her own imprudence, brought 
on herself any grievous sickness, I know you would 
think it your duty to attend and nurse her with 
filial tenderness, even were your own health to be 
endangered by it. Your apprehension, therefore, is 
right, that it may be your duty to live with her, 
though inconsistent with your happiness and your 
interest : but this can only mean present interest and 
present happiness ; for I think your future greater and 
more lasting interest and happiness will arise from the 
reflection that you have done your duty, and from the 
high rank you will ever hold in the esteem of all that 
know you for having persevered in doing that duty 
under so many and great discouragements. 

My advice, then, must be that you return to her as 
soon as the time proposed for your visit is expired ; 
and that you continue, by every means in your power, 
to make the remainder of her days as comfortable 
to her as possible. Invent amusements for her; be 
pleased when she accepts of them and patient when 
she, perhaps peevishly, rejects them. I know this is 
hard, but I think you are equal to it; not from any 
servility of temper, but from abundant goodness. In 
the mean time all your friends, sensible of your pres- 
ent uncomfortable situation, should endeavor to ease 
your burden by acting in concert with you, and to 
give her as many opportunities as possible of enjoying 
the pleasures of society for your sake. 

Nothing is more apt to sour the temper of aged 
people than the apprehension that they are neglected, 



200 ^ UTOBIOQRAPHT OF 

and they are extremely apt to entertain such sus- 
picions. It was therefore that I proposed asking 
her to be of our late party; but your mother dis- 
liking it the motion was dropped, as some others have 
been, by ray too great easiness, contrary to my judg- 
ment. Not but that I was sensible her being with us 
might have lessened our pleasure, but I hoped it might 
have prevented you some pain. 

In fine, nothing can contribute to true happiness 
that is inconsistent with duty ; nor can a course of 
action conformable to it be finally without an ample 
reward, for God governs and he is good. I pray 
him to direct you ; and, indeed, you will never be 
without his direction if you humbly ask it and show 
yourself always ready to obey it. 

Farewell, my dear friend, and believe me ever sin- 
cerely and affectionately yours, 

B. Fbankun. 



IX. 

TO MRS. STEVENSON. 

25th Janitary, 1779. 
It is always with great pleasure when I think of 
our long-continued friendship, which had not the least 
interrup tion in the course of twenty years (some of the 
happiest of my life) that I spent under your roof and 
in your company. If I do not write to you as often 
as I used to do when I happened to be absent from 
you, it is owing partly to the present difficulty of sure 
communication, and partly to an apprehension of some 
inconvenience that my correspondence might possibly 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 201 

eeoasion you. Be assured, my dear friend, that my 
regard, esteem, and affection for you are not in the 
least impaired or diminished, and that if circum* 
stances would permit nothing would afford me so 
much satisfaction as to be with you in the same house, 
and to experience again your faithful, tender care 
and attention to my interests, health, and comfortable 
living, which so long and steadily attached me to you 
and which I shall ever remember with gratitude. 

I thought I had mentioned to you before (and I be- 
lieve I did, though my letter may have miscarried) 
that I received the white cloth suit, the sword, and the 
saddle for Temple, all in good order. I mention them 
now again because Polly tells me you had not heard 
of their arrival. I w^ore the clothes a good deal last 
summer. There is one thing more that I wish to 
have if you should meet with an opportunity of send- 
ing it. I mean the copper pot lined with silver, to 
roast fowls in by means of a heater. I should also be 
glad of the piece of elephant's tooth. It is old ivory, 
perhaps of the time before the flood, and would be a 
rarity to some friends here. But I doubt you will not 
be able to send them. 

I rejoice to learn that your health is established 
and that you live pleasantly in a country town, with 
agreeable neighbors, and have your dear children 
about you. My love to every one of them. I long to 
see them and you ; but the times do not permit me the 
hope of it. Why do you never write to me ? I used 
to love to read your letters, and I regret your long 
silence. They were seasoned with good sense and 
friendship, and even your spelling pleased me. Polly 
knows I think the worst spelling the best. 1 do not 



302 AUTOBIOGRAPHY Of' 

write to her by this conveyance. You will let her 
know that I acknowledge the receipt of her pleasing 
letter dated the 11th instant. I shall now only ob- 
serve to you upon it that I know not how the pat- 
ent can be taken out in Jacob's nanie. I am sure he 
had no claim to it; for when I first proposed to 
him the making of such wheels at Mr. Yiney's in 
the country, he objected to it as impracticable. 
But Mr. Yiney, who seized the thought and carried 
it into execution, had certainly the best right to 
the patent. I wish he would send me a good draw- 
ing, with the proportions of the little carriage with 
horses which his children came once in to see us. 
How do they all do, and particularly my little, patient 
Bessum ? 

Since my coming here I have been told that 
Mr. Henley, the linen draper, had said, on my 
going to America, that I had gone away in his 
debt. I can hardly believe it. Let me know if you 
have heard such a thing, and what is the meaning of 
it. I thought he had been fully paid, and still think 
so, and shall till I am assured of the contrary. Let 
me know, at the same time, how my account stands 
with you. 

You wish to know how I live. It is in a fine house, 
situated in a neat village, on high ground, half a mile 
from Paris, with a large garden to walk in. I have 
abundance of acquaintance, dine abroad six days in 
seven. Sundays I reserve to dine at home with such 
Americans as pass this way ; and I then have my 
grandson Ben, with some other American children 
from the school. 

If being treated with all the politeness of Franco 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 303 

and the apparent respect and esteem of all ranks, 
from the highest to the lowest, can make a man happy, 
I ought to be so. Indeed, I have nothing to complain 
of but a little too much business and the want of that 
order and economy in my family which reigned in it 
when under your prudent direction. My paper gives 
me only room to add that I am ever 

Tours most affectionately, 

B. Feanklin. 



TO BENJAMIN WEBB. 

Passy, 22d April, 1784 

I RECEIVED yours of the 15th instant and the me- 
morial it inclosed. The account they give of your 
situation grieves me. I send you herewith a bill for 
ten louis d'ors. I do not pretend to give such a sum ; 
I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your 
country Tvith a good character, you cannot fail of get- 
ting into some business that will in time enable you 
to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet 
with another honest man in similar distress you must 
pay me by lending this sum to him ; enjoining him to 
discharge the debt by a like operation when he shall 
be able and shall meet with such another opportunity. 
I hope it may thus go through many hands before it 
meets with a knave that w^ill stop its progress. This 
is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little 
money. 

I am not yet rich enough to afford much in 
good works, and so am obliged to be cunnmg and 



304 AUTOBIOGMAPHY OF 

make the most of a little. With best wishes for 
the success of your memorial and your future 
prosperity, I am, dear sir, your most obedient serv- 
ant, 



XL 

TO SAMUEL MATHEB. 

Passy, May 12th, 1784. 

I EEOEiVED your kind letter, with your excellent ad- 
vice to the people of the United States, which I read 
with great pleasure and hope it will be duly regarded. 
^ Such writings, though they may be lightly passed over 
by many readers, yet if they make a deep impression 
on one active mind in a hundred the effects may be 
considerable. Permit me to mention one little instance 
which, though it relates to myself, will not be quite 
uninteresting to you. When I was a boy I met with 
a book entitled "Essays to Do Good," which I think was 
written by your father.^ It had been so little regarded 
by a former possessor that several leaves of it were 
torn out; but the remainder gave me such a turn of 
thinking as to have an influence on my conduct through 
life, for I have always set a greater value on the char- 
acter of a doer of good than on any other kind of 
reputation ; and if I have been, as you seem to think, 
a useful citizen, the public owes the advantage of it to 
that book. 

You mention your being in your seventy-eighth 

* OottoH Mather. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 305 

year. I am in my seventy-ninth year ; we are grow- 
ing old together. It is now more than sixty years since 
I left Boston, but I remember well both vour father 
and grandfather, having heard them both in the pulpit 
and seen them in their houses. The last time I saw 
your father was in the beginning of 1724, when I 
visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He 
received me in his library, and on my taking leave 
showed me a shorter way out of the house through a 
narrow passage which was crossed by a beam over- 
head. We were still talking as I withdrew, he ac- 
companying me behind, and I turning partly toward 
him, when he said hastily, " Stop, stop !" I did not 
understand him till I felt my head hit against the 
beam. He was a man that never missed anv occasion 
of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me : 
^^You are young and have the world before you; 
stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many 
hard thumps." This advice, thus beat into my head, 
has frequently been of use to me ; and I often think 
of it when I see pride mortified and misfortunes 
brought upon people by their carrying their heads too 
high. 

Yours with esteem, 

B^ Franklin. 



XII. 

TO THE REV. DR. LATHROP, BOSTON, 

Philadelphia, 31st May, 1788. 
Reverend Sir : I received your obliging favor of 
the 6th instant by Mr. Hillard, with whose con versa- 



306 AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF 

tion I was much pleased, and would have been glad to 
have had more of it if he would have spared it to me ; 
but the short time of his stay has prevented. You 
need make no apology for introducing any of your 
friends to me. I consider it as doing me honor as 
well as giving me pleasure. I thank you for the 
pamphlet of the Humane Society. In return, please 
to accept one of the same kind, which was published 
while I resided in France. If your society have not 
hitherto seen it, it may possibly afford them useful 
hints. 

It would certainly, as you observe, be a very great 
pleasure to me if I could once again visit my native 
town and walk over the grounds I used to frequent 
when a boy, and where I enjoyed many of the inno- 
cent pleasures of youth, which would be so brought to 
my remembrance, and where I might find some of 
my old acquaintance to converse with. But when I 
consider how well I am situated here, with everything 
about me tha.t I can call either necessary or conven- 
ient, the fatigues and bad accommodations to be met 
with and suffered in a land journey, and the unpleas- 
antness of sea voyages to one who, although he has 
crossed the Atlantic eight times and made many 
smaller trips, does not recollect his having ever been 
at sea without taking a firm resolution never to go to 
sea again ; and that, if I were arrived in Boston, I 
should see but little of it, as I could neither bear walk- 
ing nor riding in a carriage over its pebbled streets ; 
and, above all, that I should find very few indeed of 
my old friends living, it being now sixty-five years 
since I left it to settle here — all this considered, I say, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 307 

it seems probable, though not certain, that I shall 
hardly again visit that beloved place. But I enjoy 
the company and conversation of its inhabitants when 
any of them are so good as to visit me ; for besides 
their general good sense, which I value, the Boston 
manner, turn of phrase, and even tone of voice and 
accent in pronunciation, all please and seem to re- 
fresh and revive me. 

I have been long impressed with the same senti- 
ments you so well express of the growing felicity of 
mankind, from the improvements in philosophy, 
morals, politics, and even the conveniences of common 
living, and the invention and acquisition of new and 
useful utensils and instruments, so that I have some- 
times almost wished it had been my destiny to be 
born two or three centuries hence ; for invention and 
improvement are prolific and beget more of their kind. 
The present progress is rapid. Many of great im- 
portance, now unthought of, will before that period 
be produced ; and then I might not only enjoy their 
advantages, but have my curiosity gratified by know- 
ing what they are to be. I see a little absurdity in 
what I have just written ; but it is to a friend who 
will wink and let it pass, while I mention one reason 
more for such a wish, which is that if the art of 
physic shall be improved in proportion to other arts, 
we may then be able to avoid diseases and live as 
long as the patriarchs in Genesis, to which I suppose 
we should have little objection. 

I am glad my dear sister has so good and kind a 
neighbor. I sometimes suspect she may be backward 
in acquainting me with circumstances in which \ 



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308 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN franklin: 

might be more useful to her. If any such should 
occur to your observation, your mentioning them to 
me will be a favor I shall be thankful for. 

With great esteem, I have the honor to be, rever- 
end sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 

B. Franklin. 



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